Dubai: Maulana Tariq Jameel, a renowned Islamic scholar, was offloaded on Wednesday morning from a Canada-bound flight at Dubai International Airport due to a delay in security clearance by Canadian authorities.
Maulana Jameel, who has millions of followers around the world, was travelling from Dubai to Toronto along with his family members. Maulana Jameel categorically denied media reports that he was going with famous cricketer Shahid Afridi to attend a fundraising event for Afridi’s charity foundation.
“Media reports based a tweet by Afridi’s friend are wrong, as Maulana Jameel met Afridi only at the airport and he has no plans to attend his charity event in Toronto,” said one of his close friends who was at the airport to see him off.
He told Gulf News that it was very unfortunate that media published and telecast wrong news based on a tweet from some unknown person without confirming the facts with Maulana Jameel.
“We are upset about this fabricated news,” he added.
He said that Maulana Jameel and his family members were given a complimentary hotel stay by the airline in Dubai and were also booked on the next flight to Toronto on Friday.
“It is quite normal for passengers to get offloaded from Canada and US bound flights due to delays in security clearance,” said an airline official on condition of anonymity.
