Abdel Nasser Beibe, a Mauritanian international student set to study in the US for the upcoming school year was denied entry and deported Saturday night after being detained and questioned for several hours at the Detroit International Airport.
According to Beibe, a political activist based in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott and ambassador for the Arab Thought Foundation, the trouble started when authorities discovered that his phone was carrying a picture of the novel “Habibi Daeshi” (My Beloved Daesh Member) by Egyptian writer Hager Abd al-Samd. This piqued the curiosity of local authorities who, after a long interrogation, concluded that Beibe was a risk to national security for carrying materials that “promote extremism”.
In an interview with Ahmed Walid Jido of Arabic-language website Raseef22, Beibe explained his story. He was apparently granted a US-government funded scholarship to study and participate in a cultural exchange program at Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, MI. He and one other student were given the scholarship after winning a competition held by the American Embassy in Nouakchott.
After arriving in Detroit and having his visa approved, Beiba was selected for extra questioning, a routine procedure for many visiting the US from North Africa.
The questions got more intense, however, he was taken to a separate room for interrogation. After having his electronics seized one of the officers returned to Beibe with the picture of “Habibi Daeshi”.
“Habibi Daeshi” is a novel featuring stories of love from the ranks of Daesh and exposes the crimes of the group, but a glance at the cover merely reveals the infamous flag of the militant group with Arabic text and a veiled woman.
Raseef22 spoke with author Hager as-Samd who expressed her confusion over what happened in Detroit. According to as-Samd, the book does not support terrorism or radicalism - it condemns it in all its forms. “Even the summary on Goodreads.com explains that the book highlights the crimes of Daesh - in fact, that’s even written on the back cover,” Samd told the website
Indeed, the aforementioned summary in Arabic reads “the novel unveils the true face of Daesh and explains their crimes.”
And Raseef22 is hardly the only outlet to not consider the book a piece of Daesh propaganda. Al Jazeera’s program “Hashtag” held a discussion with Samd in August.
On why he had the book, Beibe says that he had been on a trip in the south of Mauritania and asked by a friend of his to take a picture of the book and show it to another friend in Nouakchott two weeks earlier. Though he passed on the picture, he never deleted it from his phone.
Beibe tried to explain his story and the nuances of the novel to the authorities, but even with the help of a translator they were unconvinced. According to Beibe, the authorities told him that the book incited religious extremism and glorified the acts of Daesh, and considering he was unable to provide contact information for the individual who had him take a picture of the book’s cover, they could not allow him into the country.
He was placed on an Air France flight back home, but his troubles weren’t over then, and he was similarly detained in Paris, Casablanca and Nouakchott, according to Raseef22.
Beibe visited the United States last year without issue. His story was similarly covered by The New Arab, and was discussed by a few Twitter accounts. Beibe also wrote about the incident in his own words on his Facebook page.
Naturally, he expressed frustration on Facebook. “They told me that the novel glorifies Daesh based on information they found on Google!” wrote Beibe. There does not appear to be much information available on the novel in English on Google.
Historically, Muslims from abroad haven’t had the easiest of times in American airports. Beiba joins a long list of Muslims who have either been denied entry or subjected to questioning, including an incident early this year of a family removed from a plane - allegedly for scaring other passengers.
