Trump Is Detaining a British Muslim Journalist for Criticizing Israel
Trump’s administration arrested Sami Hamdi following a social media campaign from far-right, Islamophobic figures.
On Saturday evening, Sami Hamdi was addressing a crowded audience in Sacramento, beseeching US politicians to take an “America First” approach, rather than “Israel First.” Hours later, US agents arrested Hamdi at an airport.
Hamdi, a British Muslim journalist and commentator of Tunisian and Algerian descent, was visiting the US for a speaking tour, something he had done in the past. On Oct. 25, Hamdi spoke at the annual gala of the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. After the event, he went to the San Francisco International Airport, on his way to another CAIR event in Florida. Upon arriving at the airport and heading through security, though, immigration officials detained him and informed him his visitor visa had been revoked.
The legal rationale for the arrest was unclear, but two unelected, far-right, Islamophobic figures quickly took credit: Laura Loomer and Amy Mekelburg. The latter released a pages-long report last week calling on the US to deport Hamdi and bar him from re-entering the country, alleging he was “training US Muslims in digital agitation, electoral sabotage, and political warfare in alignment with Muslim Brotherhood doctrine.” Just two days later, the State Department revoked his visa. US agents arrested him the following day.
In true MAGA fashion, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) celebrated Hamdi’s visa revocation and detention in a social media post. Attached to the X post is a video clip of Hamdi speaking about Israel and Palestine. DHS claims the recording shows Hamdi “cheered on the terrorist attack,” referring to the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
A friend of Hamdi’s family says the clip is missing context. In a different video around the same time, Hamdi made clear that no one should “celebrate death.”
Hamdi’s detention is part of a broader crackdown in the US against speech supporting Palestine and opposing Israel. The administration has placed a particular focus on stripping immigrants of their visas based on their speech.
The Trump administration’s targeting of Hamdi comes one year after he himself argued that, in many respects, the Democrats were not the lesser of two evils relative to Trump, and urged Muslim Americans in swing states to punish Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for complicity in genocide.
“You survived four years of Trump. You could survive again,” he said in one video, noting that “240,000 Palestinians did not survive four years of Biden.”
Following Hamdi’s arrest, five independent members of the UK parliament – Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan, Iqbal Mohamed, Jeremy Corbyn, and Shockat Adam – have issued calls to ensure his safety. So far, however, the UK government has remained largely mum on the detention of its own national.
The UK embassy did not respond to a request for comment. The US State Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to questions from Zeteo.