BRITISH actor Riz Ahmed has accused US authorities of 'racial profiling' for banning him from a flight, causing him to miss a Star Wars celebration convention in Chicago in April.
Ahmed said he was swabbed for explpsives and questioned at an unnamed airport in the United States. The 36-year-old said he was frequently stopped and searched when he flies.
“With all my privilege and profile, I often wonder if this is going to be the year they round us up, if this is the year they’re going to put Trump’s Muslim registry into action, if this is going to be the year they ship us all off,” he reportedly told a crowd last Tuesday.
The success enjoyed by other A-list Muslim stars has not helped the plight of other Muslims in the US, said the actor.
“[Hasan Minhaj] could win a Peabody, I could win an Emmy, Ibtihaj Muhammad could win the Olympics, but some of these obstacles are systemic, and we can’t really face them alone,” he said. “We need your help. I’m basically here to ask for your help. Because it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now. Super scary.”
Ahmed also called on Hollywood to be more careful about how Muslims are presented on screen. "I think lives are quite literally at stake here. The representation of Muslims on screen – that feeds the policies that get enacted, the people that get killed, the countries that get invaded."
In 2016, the actor told Stephen Colbert that he was hoping to change sterotypes through his work. “When I was growing up, I felt like I had to qualify it and say I’m British-Pakistani,” Ahmed said on The Late Show in August 2016. “But now, in this day and age, I feel like this is what British looks like me. It looks like me, like Idris Elba."
