Via the Morocco Report comes the story of Ahmedyassine Boujrad, a 3 year-old Moroccan boy who was denied entry to the United States because his name was similar to the name of the guy who founded Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, who is both Palestinian and dead.When I heard about this my reflex was that the Moroccan government bungled somewhere, but it's apparently US Citizenship and Immigration Service's fault. Because of the mix-up, the kid didn't see his parents for two years.
It's not clear why it took them so long to realize the toddler wasn't going to call for Israel's destruction. Perhaps USCIS didn't realize the free trade agreement extends to babies and excludes Western Sahara, not the other way around.
Every so often I like to remind myself and my readers that Morocco is generally a nice country. Of course, it'd be an even one without the occupation. Check out Morocco's report cool pictures of Casablanca.
As for that other notable Arab denied entry to the US for no reason? He's not so lucky.