American human rights activist Randy Short has been interrogated by US security officers after attending an anti-Zionist conference in Iran.
In an interview with Press TV on Sunday, the activist talked about his ordeal when he returned home. He took part in a gathering of interdependent thinkers and filmmakers in the Iranian capital city of Tehran.
“A man came up and took my passport, [he] said he had to question me and he told me I needed to get my bags, so they could be searched and there is something in the John Foster Dallas Airport that took the energy out of the battery of my phone,” Short said.
“So, I had a hard time trying to call people to let them know I was going to be held up maybe for several hours as they questioned me,” he added.
The activist, who participated in Iran’s International New Horizon Independent Conference in late September, explained that he was detained for hours.
“When I got there, they had lots of questions about Iran and they just held me there, most of the people that were being detained were most some black or brown,” Short said.
“It was just ridiculous,” he said. ”They worried about me having a holy Quran and some writings of our dear late brother [the founder of the Islamic Republic] Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini.”
“The people were professional, but it’s obnoxious and I understand this is how people who travel from Iran are treated all the time as if there’s something wrong with Iranian people or there’s something wrong with people who travel to Iran or people who like Iranians,” according to Short.
“It’s racist. It’s Islamophobic and I could’ve left my things home, so I would have fewer problems, but I don’t care, I want them to know I like the people in Iran.”
“I respect the self-determination and sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States needs to do so as well,” he said.
A number of senior investigative journalists, authors, filmmakers and renowned political activists from the UK, the United States, and several countries of Europe took part in the conference.
