MP slams US after Muslim family barred from travelling to Disneyland

A British MP has called on Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene after a Muslim family was barred from travelling to California for a trip to Disneyland with relatives.

Mohammad Tariq Mahmood told the Guardian on Tuesday that he was at Gatwick airport with his brother and nine of their children when they were approached by US Homeland Security officers and denied access to the flight.

The family was given no reason for the last-minute cancellation of their travel clearance, Mahmood said, but he believes that “it’s because of the attacks on America – they think every Muslim poses a threat”. 

The US State Department has not yet addressed the issue.

But Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, wrote to Cameron on Tuesday to ask him to press US officials for an explanation as to why the family was not allowed to travel to California.

"A growing number of UK Muslim citizens say they have been similarly treated," Creasy wrote in an op-ed in the Guardian. 

"This raises troubling questions well beyond how to diffuse the heartache of small children unable to meet Elsa from Frozen. Indeed, if the US thinks it has good grounds for stopping people going there, we cannot be contented that the UK does not take any action to follow this up here."

“Online and offline discussions reverberate with the growing fear UK Muslims are being ‘trumped’ – that widespread condemnation of Donald Trump's for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice," she wrote.

After the San Barnardino attacks, in which a Muslim couple killed 24 people including two police officers, Trump called for the US to ban all Muslims from entering the country, at least temporarily. His comments have been criticised around the world.

Cameron's office said he would look into the matter.

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised over restrictions on the freedom of Muslims to travel to the US after President Barack Obama signed a new bill into law on Friday.

The law disqualifies citizens of visa-waiver countries who are dual nationals of Syria, Iraq, Sudan or Iran from travelling to the US without a visa. They, along with other citizens of visa-waiver countries who have visited any of the above nations in the past five years, will now have to appear for an in-person interview with US officials to apply for a visa.

Many Iranian, Sudanese, Iraqi and Syrian dual nationals - particularly those who visit the US frequently for business and family matters - are protesting the law.