On Monday evening Biden hosted an event celebrating the Islamic holiday Eid-al-Fitr, which was intended to honor American Muslims. Unfortunately, like most of Biden’s interactions, the event suffered from several of his now-expected gaffes.
Even before the event began, there were issues. New Jersey Mayor Khairullah was planning to attend the event but, according to the Daily Mail, was uninvited shortly before his planned arrival at the White House. Mayor Khairullah said he received a call informing him that the Secret Service had not cleared him for entry and he could not attend. CAIR National, America’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, decried the situation saying, “This insulting incident reeks of government outreach & anti-muslim bigotry.”
.@MayorKhairullah, the nation's longest-serving Muslim mayor, was disinvited from the @WhiteHouse #Eid celebration by the Secret Service just hours before it was set to begin. This insulting incident reeks of government overreach & anti-Muslim bigotry. Watch this interview with… pic.twitter.com/hKl9PqiReF
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) May 2, 2023
Khairullah claims he was placed on an FBI watch list in 2019 after a visit to Turkey which began his problems. He says a border agent asked who he had met with on his trip. He maintains he was asked, “Did you meet with any terrorists while you were in Turkey?” He believes the incident may be at the root of his inability to attend the Muslim White House event.
The Muslim mayor described his reaction to being uninvited as one of surprise. The shocked mayor said he was given no explanation for why he was not allowed to attend. He inferred that the Biden White House’s actions against him were racially based because of his identity while concluding it was wrong for the White House to profile him,
“It left me baffled, shocked, and disappointed,’ Khairullah said. ‘It’s not a matter of I didn’t get to go to a party. It’s why I did not go. And it’s a list that has targeted me because of my identity. And I don’t think the highest office in the United States should be down with such profiling.”
Yet Biden’s missteps in offending the Muslim community did not stop there. While Biden spoke before the crowd, a member of the audience heckled him for failing to recognize a Muslim federal judge in attendance. After being interrupted, Biden quipped,
“Hey, judge, how are you? I don’t know why you wanted the job, man… I appoint all the federal judges, but thank you for serving.”
When the heckler continued to speak over him, Biden incited anger by responding, ‘Hush up, boy,’ in a mimicked Southern drawl.
FULL VIDEO:
An audience member tells Biden the first and only Muslim federal judge is in the audience.
Biden tells him, "Hush up, boy!" pic.twitter.com/5HUJSwoMjL
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 1, 2023
The encounter quickly sparked backlash due to the historic connotations behind the word ‘boy,’ which has been used as a racist slur against black people.
Biden then told Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, she looked beautiful,
Biden said: “God love you… I’ll get in trouble for saying this, but you look beautiful tonight.”
Todd Starnes ridiculed Biden’s numerous gaffes saying, “Hush up boy: Biden Almost Starts Holy War At Muslim WH Event.”
In the span of 20 minutes, Biden:
- told a Muslim serviceman to “hush up boy”
- called the Quran the “Quorum”
- mispronounced Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s name
- told Ilhan Omar she looked beautiful