Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Youtube star Adam Saleh’s Yemeni cousin was caught up in the global travel chaos sparked by the US executive order banning citizens of seven countries from entering the USA.
Saleh, in Oman last night for a concert, has Yemeni roots but was born in the United States.
He labelled Donald Trump’s Executive Order to ban travelers from Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Sudan for 90 days ‘dumb’ but praised protestors who took to the streets to voice their objections.
Saleh, a YouTube star whose family came to the US from Yemen, said: “I can’t believe it. I was ashamed to even have an American passport when I found out because America stands for being united, having freedom.
“Knowing that he did that is like going backwards. 2016 was an amazing year and 2017 just went upside down. I think it’s really dumb what he did and I really hope America can change that.
“However, I am also proud because there were a lot of Americans who were not happy about the Muslim ban and helped Muslims come back to America. America is made of immigrants.”
Saleh, born in New York, is confident he will get back into the United States, “I am going to have no troubles, I am always confident, never scared of no one but Allah.”
Although he has personally not been affected by the ban, he said one of his cousins was returned to Yemen from the United States after Trump announced the ban.
“One of my cousins flew out from Yemen to Qatar and Qatar to America at 11.30, and they sent her back to Yemen. Trump made the rule some time close to that - she was 30 minutes late, if she would have landed 30 minutes before, they would let her in, but because she was 30 minutes late, they sent her back.
“She only went to see her husband, that’s what hurts me the most because that’s my own family and Yemen is one of the countries that is banned from there, so knowing that one of my cousins is returned back and she got held up and had all that trouble is a shame.”
Saleh hopes for better things: “I really hope things will get better. People should know by now we are all equal, all human at the end of the day but having Donald Trump - we should ban him instead of banning Muslims.”
Saleh said he is really happy to be on tour and that his shows in Bahrain and Qatar were packed. “Oman is amazing, I came in 2014 for the first time just for a little meet up and having a show here now was just amazing. I am glad to be back and to do this show here, everyone was so excited and I will come back.”
All of Saleh’s shows have a message, “In every show that I do, I have a message, a skit or anything that I do, and it’s just to show that we are all human and equal. We have a big Muslim crowd and I like showing the Muslims that no matter where or what country you are from, at the end of the day you are all Muslims and you need to love one another - our mosques need to be one and united.”
Apart from Muslims, he also wants to show non-Muslims that we are equal. He added: “I wish I could tell them that we are all one, not just Muslims but even non-Muslims, we are all human. In the United States too, my message is still the same but we have more non-Muslims there, so I want them to see that Muslims can have fun and Muslims are peaceful.”
Saleh started doing videos on YouTube in 2012. After Oman he is going to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and then back to New York. He has over 300,000 twitter followers and his videos are instant viral hits.
"The local organizer for the show was National Performing Arts & Events LLC (NPA)."
