A contributor to National Public Radio who fled Afghanistan with his family has been charged with misdemeanor assault and failing to obey an officer for blocking Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos from entering a Washington, D.C. public school last Friday.
Bilal Ahmed Askaryar, who fled Afghanistan when he was five, has been charged with misdemeanors; Politico gleaned from the police report:
Askaryar, who entered his plea on Saturday in Superior Court in Washington, was given “several lawful orders” to move out of the way of a vehicle, and then pushed an individual identified as “V-1.” Listed as a factor under one of the charges is “impeding/assaulting US government cabinet member.”
Askaryar has told his story of fleeing from Afganistan several times; in a piece for NPR, where he wrote, “On Friday, an executive order was released that indicated the United States is banning the entry of Syrian refugees and temporarily suspending immigration for anyone from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. To me, this policy looks to be based on nothing but prejudice against Muslims,” a story in the Washington Blade, the gay D.C., publication, and an al Jazeera story from September 2011.