A Muslim mayor from New Jersey says that he was disinvited from the White House's annual Eid al-Fitr celebration shortly before the event began.

Mohamed Khairullah, mayor of Prospect Park for over 17 years, told NorthJersey.com that he was on his way to the celebration when he was told that the Secret Service had denied him security clearance, despite helping a Democratic staffer compile a list of Muslim leaders to invite to the event.

“It’s disappointing and it’s shocking that this continues to happen under our Constitution which provides that everyone is innocent unless proven guilty,” he said. “I honestly don’t know what my charge, if you want to put it that way, is at this point, to be treated in such a manner.”

Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, confirmed in a statement that Khairullah was denied entrance, but did not clarify why.

“While we regret any inconvenience this may have caused, the mayor was not allowed to enter the White House complex this evening,” he said. “Unfortunately we are not able to comment further on the specific protective means and methods used to conduct our security operations at the White House."

The Federal Terrorist Screening Dataset contains approximately 1.5 million names. The Council on American Islamic Relations initially leaked the document, reporting that it was “almost entirely lists of Arabic and Muslim names."

A name and date of birth on the list matches Khairullah, who said he suspected he had been on the list since 2019, when he began to receive random searches and interrogations while travelling.

"I think right now my crime is my name," he said, adding, "The fact is, there is a secret list I can’t clear my name from and it still haunts me and follows me where I go. I can’t even enter the People’s House and meet with my president. It's shameful."