The story of one athlete raises questions.

Sir Mo Farah: ‘Queen made me a knight, Donald Trump made me an alien’
Farah condemns Donald Trump’s executive order as “ignorant and prejudiced”


Sir Mo Farah has condemned Donald Trump’s decision to ban Muslims from several countries from travelling to America, calling the decision “ignorant and prejudiced” – and saying he will have to tell his kids that he might not be able to come home to the US from his training camp in Ethiopia.

In a statement Britain’s double 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic champion also contrasted his treatment from the Queen, who recently gave him a knighthood, with that of Trump, saying: “On 1 January this year, Her Majesty the Queen made me a knight of the Realm. On 27 January, President Donald Trump seems to have made me an alien.”


Farah was speaking from Ethiopia where he is training at high altitude in preparation for a race in Birmingham next month. His plan was to return to Ethiopia afterwards before returning to his wife and four children in Portland in mid-March. However he now fears he will not be able to travel back to Portland because of the executive order signed by Trump barring citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen from entering the United States for the next 90 days.

In a strongly worded riposte to Trump, Farah added: “I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years – working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home. Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome. It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that daddy might not be able to come home – to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.

“I was welcomed into Britain from Somalia at eight years old and given the chance to succeed and realise my dreams. I have been proud to represent my country, win medals for the British people and receive the greatest honour of a knighthood. My story is an example of what can happen when you follow polices of compassion and understanding, not hate and isolation.”


Farah is a British citizen with a British passport who does not have dual nationality or hold a Somalian passport. However, he was born in Somalia before moving to the UK at the age of eight and becoming a British citizen, which would appear to make him a victim of Trump’s policy. His camp seeking to clarify the situation with the US authorities.

Meanwhile Alan Watkinson, the PE teacher who discovered Farah as a schoolboy, said he wasn’t surprised by him speaking out against Trump’s decision. “Mo has strong values,” he told the Guardian. “If he thinks something isn’t fair he won’t sit on the fence. He is always been passionate about injustice and he has always had that side to him.”

Watkinson, who was also the best man at Farah’s wedding, urged Theresa May to intervene directly to make sure that Farah would be able to return to the US. “Mo has lived in the US for many years, had children there, and pays his taxes there. And while Mo is the most high profile case, the whole policy is complete crackers and hopefully his case will highlight how ridiculous this blanket ban against Muslims is.”

Last edited by Goose (1/29/2017 8:21 am)