No, it’s probably not fair, but when you consider that almost every act of terrorism involving aircraft over the last 20 years have been committed by Muslims, what do you expect?

Every country on the planet that takes terrorism seriously profiles airline and rail passengers. It’s complete folly not to do the same here. The lives it saves far outweighs any temporary inconvenience some might suffer.

Consider too though the fact that Islamist grievance groups like CAIR deliberatly pull stunts like as an intimidation tactic and to garner publicity.

I don’t often agree with Go_Fish, but I do here.

To paraphrase a comedian I once heard; I’m sure that if little old ladies were behind most terrorism and hijackings, they would have a hard time on airlines also.

I realize the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful, law abiding citizens – but until the minority of Muslims out there stop killing people in the name of Islam, all people of Muslim ancestry will be viewed suspiciously.

Totally agree with Go Fish. I no longer fly…prefer to drive anyway.

I too agree with Go_Fish. I believe that if the Muslims in doubt are really Americans at heart as the family that was ask to leave a Trans Jet last week, they should not feel put out by the inconvenience. In a since, they too were being protected. If it looks like a fish it’s probably is a fish. The question is, is it a killer fish or friendly fish? In lite of what this country and the rest of the world is experiencing, some are just going to have to live with the fact that they look like the bad guy’s enough to be questioned. Compensation for this is completely out of line. Understanding Muslims should go out of their way to avoid any problems. Sometimes the best thought is not to advertise and you won’t get any buyers.

Were not Muslims the ones who highjacked the airliners and caused so much death and destruction in the United States on 9/11/2001?.

Hello people!!! Let’s use our heads for something besides an “I love NY” hat. It was a shirt! Think! Would a terrorist where such a shirt?

I’m the only one so far who disagrees with Go_Fish. Note that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are also working on recruiting other races which would not attract the attention of authorities.

By focusing on the one, they are not focusing as much on the others. Think about it. If a person was a terrorist, they could have several Arab race families on board and have a person of a different race do the real damage. This would create a nice diversion.

This is absolute racial profiling and discrimination. Ask the Arabic people how they feel about it. To be fair, if one person has to do something against their freedoms without probable cause, then all people should have to do it. Then you can’t call it discrimination. This is just an excuse to further destroy our freedoms.

By the way, I have Islamic and Jewish friends as well as those of other races, which means I can look at things from several vantage points.

This reminds me of many Japanese people being rounded up in the US during World War II and put in Relocation Centers. Why? Because they were Japanese and supposedly could be helping the Axis in WWII. However, this was not done with those of German and Italian ancestry, the other 2 main Axis powers. I guess the others would say that’s okay, too. And we wonder why the US is not looked favorably upon by other countries.

I guess the motto of this country is guilty until proven innocent.

Please ignore the typo. I know the difference between where and wear.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with racial or ethnic profiling when it comes to stopping terrorism. And as the US is currently stuck in a ridulous cycle of PC nonsense, to say we are looked down upon by other countries because we might contemplate something that we don’t in actuality engage in is nonsense. The irony of course is that many of the same countries that supposedly look down on us regularly commit human rights abuses on a scale that’s unimaginable to most Americans. To equate the rare instance of a passenger being yanked off a plane with the forced confinement of thousands of Japanese citizens during a war is laughable.

What if I wore a t shirt with Arabic inscription that read something along the lines of ” I am a proud American who values freedom of expression and fears tyranny” or ” I love New York”. Will that bring about discomfort amongst my fellow American passengers?

Almost all of these incidences speak volumes about ignorance amongst passengers. I don’t think the airport security has gone too far. they are just following the rules. If the fellow passenger wasn’t uncomfortable, they wouldn’t have acted at all.

Go_Fish, you still never addressed where I mentioned that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are recruiting other races. Your racial profiling being okay does not fix this issue. That’s true about human rights abuses which I’m also against. However, because others do something does not make it right for us to do it.

My discussion mentioning Japanese being taken to Relocation Centers in WWII is to extrapolate to show how wrong the profiling and discrimination is. If something is so great, let’s take it to an extreme to see how great it is. If a little is okay, then a lot must be even better. Many arguments for racial profiling and discrimination falter when you take them to extremes.

Yes, I too think that profiling is ok and I am married to a Arab. However profiling and not allowing someone on a plane for a T shirt is two totally different things. Profiling is used to filter suspious people. Not allowing someone on a plane for a Tshirt is stupid. Also the muslim family that was forced off a plane recently fully cooperated but still were not allowed on a different flight. This also is wrong. I realize that Muslims make people uncomfortable but we are not all up to something if we read arabic, pray the koran, or ask a question about safety on a plane (as did the previous Muslim family ) For the record not all Muslims wear Islamic garb or have dark skin– this too should be considered. One of the largest populations is actually in Asia.

Colleen is right on. I object to racial profiling on principle, but this is not even about that. This is about a totally unjustified and frankly idiotic, knee-jerk reaction to a for-crying-out-loud T-shirt that said nothing remotely threatening. Let’s see….maybe we’d better stop the next kid that comes through the airport wearing a pistol-packing Yosemite Sam shirt. Give me a break already…

I thought this was still the United States of America, where being Muslim and/or Middle Eastern is supposed to be neither illegal nor an invitation for institutionalized abuse. If the government and the airlines want to come out and say, “For the record, if it’s remotely Arabic-looking, we’re gonna discriminate,” fine — we’ll wait for the justified outcry and let the legal chips fall where they may. In the meantime, how about some common sense and sanity? I’m not sure I agree with the amount, but I think Jetblue and the USTSA definitely should have had to pay this man something.

For those of you who have no problem routinely denying “those people” civil liberties, you’d better hope it doesn’t become your turn under the microscope next.

No matter if this is right or wrong aside, was the offense really worth a $240,000 “award?” He was not kicked off the plane, he was not restrained in any way. He was moved to the back of the plane and asked/required to put on another T-shirt. I don’t understand how this is worth $240,000. It’s just the left wing ACLU getting into things that they should just stay out of.

The guy wearing the shirt was looking for attention and he got it. As far as Al-Qaeda is concerned, I would hope the government in this country knows what they are doing. It’s the guy that wants to act out on his or her own that concerns me. I don’t care what they look like or ware, if there is question about them, they need to be screened. I’m not ready to be blown up by some kook. The family last week was not treated fairly by not being allowed back on the plane after they were cleared. Life is not always fair. One way or the other, this government owes it to the U.S. citizens to protect them from harm. That is where some of our tax dollars go.

IS $240K a bit much? Maybe. But I do know this, most people/institutions don’t learn anything unless they feel some pain. $240K is all about making someone feel pain. Thanks ACLU.

First of all, I think it’s smart to profile for terrorists. Making some 85 year old great grandmother take off her shoes is ludicrous, and a waste of time. Time that could be used to properly screen passengers that actually may pose as a threat.

With that said, some of these comments are ridiculous, though, for an obvious reason. It’s OK to make a muslim cover up a shirt? For what? What good would that do, if the individual was, in fact, a terrorist? Would covering up the words on his shirt all of a sudden render him powerless? Unless that muslim happened to be from Krypton, and the new T-Shirt the airline made him cover up with happened to be made out of Kryptonite, I fail to see how anything they did was anything more than embarrassing. I don’t think it should be an airline’s duty to appease ignorant passengers.

Also, if making someone cover up their T-Shirt all of a sudden makes you feel safe, than you should be wearing a T-Shirt that says “I’m with stupid” and has an arrow pointing straight up.

Isn’t this the same place I read about some guy who was pulled off a plane and got 3 days in jail for making a dumb joke about shoe bombs? Let’s have a little proportion. Unless they’re stupid, Muslims know about 9/11 and realize that their religion and language are associated with terrorism. This guy was just being a jerk, and now he wants to collect a bunch of money.

Many foreigners go out of their way to learn the English language in order to be understood in our country. Maybe if more Americans learned more about their language and writing styles, then they would actually be able to read the shirt and not be intimidated by it.

to avoid discrimination, our liberal society has chosen instead become totally indiscriminate, and stupid. it costs lives….

First of all, what exactly does a Muslim look like? Muslims come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and I for one am put off by Kurt’s wording at the end of his story. Being a Muslim is about your RELIGION, not your ethnicity or race, so how can you LOOK like a Muslim?
I understand profiling to a point, BUT, if this guy was doing nothing more than wearing a t-shirt, what’s the big deal? Should people wearing “proud to be Irish” t-shirts be banned because they may have possible connections to the IRA?

crc, if the IRA had crashed into the world trade center killing 3000 Americans or so and continued to threat, the answer to you question would be YES

I understand that need for profiling, and first tom, I understand your point that if the IRA was responsible for 9/11 then we would be profiling a completely different group. But this guy was wearing a tshirt, not doing anything suspicious. It’s the airline’s ignorance - and the people who were flying on this man’s plane - to think that because he looks like his from the Middle East (because, again, you can’t really look like a Muslim) that he is on the plane to harm anybody.

I appreciate the efforts by security personnal to keep the traveling public safe in this day and age. Unfortunately not every decision is going to be a good one. This dude wearing a t-shirt with Arabic script probably shouldn’t have been considered a threat.

At the same time, how stupid do you have to be to be a Middle-eastern man aged 18-35 to wear a shirt with Arabic writing on it to an airport? Either this guy lives under a rock or he knew PRECISELY what he was doing when he donned those duds and tried to board a plane. Where is the outrage over his decisions? He may have even realized the money he could make if things played out right when he tried to get on the plane, which they did, and which he got…

Here is some food for thought. There are about 2 billion Muslims in the world. I have seen in several articles in many different newspapers and magazines that most Muslims are ” moderate” and no danger to us. We all know to what extent “radical” Muslims will go to destroy western society. Lets suppose that only one tenth of one percent( that means that 99.99% are moderate) of Muslims are radical. That means that each and everyday there are 2,000,000 Muslims that are doing everything legal and illegal to KILL US!! The Koran says that they can do anything to infidels that they want to. We must either convert,submit, or die! Not many liberties granted to us infidels. Until little old ladies and “non Muslim” type people start attacking us, then we need a very focused profiling program to portect us. I for one are VERY WILLING to put up with these additional security measures to protect our great society.

I didn’t respond to the other races situation because even though I’ve heard the same thing, I have yet to see much evidence that Al-Qaeda has actually been successful at it. Security authorities in several countries have thwarted plots by Al-Qaeda cells on airlines in the last year, but so far as I can tell all those arrested and questioned have been of Asian or Middle Eastern descent.

However, even if it turns out a group like Al-Qaeda has gotten people of other ethnicities to join their global Jihad, that doesn’t change the fact that vast majority of their cell members are still Asian/Middle Eastern. All it means is that security services must take that into account as well as continue to use effective methods like profiling. Just because a particular tool doesn’t work 100% of the time is no reason to scrap it. And yes, it is silly to follow something like that to a radical conclusion. We learned decades ago that internment was a waste of time besies being an egregious abuse of citizen’s rights. No one is seriously advocating doing that again and if they did, I’d be one of the first to protest against it.

Go_Fish says, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with racial or ethnic profiling when it comes to stopping terrorism.” Take that sentence and substitute another crime for the word terrorism. Let’s try burglary. There is absolutely nothing wrong with racial or ethnic profiling when it comes to stopping burglary. OK with that? What about murder? Child abuse? Vandalism?

Is there any situation where racial and ethnic profiling IS wrong? Is there really a situation where criminal justice can be appropriately enforced based upon racial and ethnic stereotyping?

Once again, posters have proven my contention that most Americans are constitutional illiterates. Has any one of you taken a civics class? Racial profiling is not an issue in this case, so forget about it completely. This appears to be primarily a freedom of speech issue. You know, the First Amendment. I know that private entities, such as JetBlue, are not covered by the First Amendment, as it applies only to governmental agencies and agents. However, JetBlue appears to have been acting as a government agent in this case, meaning a First Amendment claim applied to them. Freedom of speech, in this case the wearing of a T-shirt with Arabic script, is almost absolute. There are few exceptions where freedom of speech may be limited. Here, the shirt posed no threat to public safety. Sorry people, the mere wearing of a shirt that might be frightening to some people is not considered a threat to public safety. Look at all the morons who wear Che Gueverra shirts (he was a terrorist, after all). It apparently was not defamation. The script did not constitute “fighting words”. It was not an incitement to crime. It did not constitute sedition. It was not an obscenity. The only possible basis for restricting the man from wearing and exhibiting the T-shirt would be “causing panic”. However, this is a very limited exception, and I do not think another passenger’s “discomfort” rises to the level of panic.

Therefore, the TSA officials, and JetBlue, an agent of the government, had no constitutional basis for restricting the man’s freedom of expression. Rather than badmouth the ACLU, an organization I frequently disagree with, people would be better served learning the Constitution.

It never goes to far, when the safety of the traveling American public is in question. I think most Americans would agree with my position, and unfortunately, these are the times we are living in.

crc: You’re right. My wording was inelegant. I have edited it to reflect what I really meant to say. Thank you.

Go_Fish, I’m glad we agree on the internment discussion. I’m for normal airport security. However, I only have a problem when race or color is used to profile people, rather than what’s in their luggage or on their person.

As far as different races than Arabic people, Jose Padilla, a Hispanic Muslim convert comes to mind. But I can think of no others. What I’m trying to say is everyone needs the same rules applied to them regardless of race or color. You never know when or where we’ll have another Timothy McVey OK City bombing or Unabomber or Virginia Tech or Columbine or what race or color they will be. It is my point that we should not profile on basis of race, religion, or color. I guess that those who are for the racial profiling would not have caught these people, because they would be too focused on the Arab folks.

……………can I get on a plane wearing a tee-shirt that has the word “BOMB” written across it and expect no trouble?

I think it was probably a calculated plan to bring about the likely results, and a nice payday.

Discrimination is perfectly legitimate as long as it’s against non-protected groups such as whites (especially males), Catholics, Muslims and heterosexuals. All other groups it is extremely forbidden and the subject should never even be mentioned. But as far as the other groups go feel free to discriminate and use slurs against them because it’s openly condoned in American society and especially on TeeVee and in the Media. Like for example feel free to call whites: crackers, honkeys, trailer trash…. but never ever use a slur to describe any other ethnic group or it’s a hate crime.

WHITE AMERICA IS ALWAYS GUILTLESS, AND SENSE WHITE PEOPLE CONTROL THIS STUPID RACIST SYSTEM, THEY ARE PROTECTED BY WHITE IGNORANT PEOPLE.

Sadly, many people like this man do this intentionally just to see the reaction. I wouldn’t try things like this in a Muslim country.

“Take that sentence and substitute another crime for the word terrorism. Let’s try burglary. There is absolutely nothing wrong with racial or ethnic profiling when it comes to stopping burglary. OK with that? What about murder? Child abuse? Vandalism?”

What about them? Ask any detective or your own doctor for that matter. You can’t stop crime or treat disease until you identify the agent or the cause. Criminologists and other statisticians do this all the time. How do you think the FBI comes up with those swell crime statistics every year? Heck, there are several prime time TV shows dedicated to the practice. If profiling is really an evil enterprise, you should take your complaints to CBS.

“Is there any situation where racial and ethnic profiling IS wrong?”

Sure there is. Using it to prevent people from voting is one. I don’t think going down a slippery slope like that is necessary, though.

“Is there really a situation where criminal justice can be appropriately enforced based upon racial and ethnic stereotyping?”

Based solely on profiling? Of course not. No one claims it does. Profiling is but one tool in the box. It’s been proven effective against international and domestic terrorism, drug smuggling, car theft, armed robbery, piracy, prostitution, and a host of other crimes all over the world.

Go_Fish,

I reword my question. Is racial or ethnic profiling sufficient “probable cause” for detention, search or interrogation of an individual or group?

I think the award was a bit much, but I can understand this mans indignation. This is what happens when people live in fear. I do find it ironic that his T-Shirt read, “We will not be silent”. It was on a t-shirt, so it has to be read by someone else. And it was written in Arabic, a language not a lot of us Americans are able to read. It seems like he wanted to be seen but not heard.

Actually, I think they go too far when they perform body cavity searches on 3 year olds.

I had a security guard make a Muslim take off his big head piece telling the guard “we don’t know what is under there.The Muslim said “it’s religious”I said “so are my shoes and purse”They made him take it off.Racial for us whites to have to obey rules others don’t.

WHY WASN’T THIS COURT JUDGEMENT APPEALED TO THE APPEALATE LEVEL????

There’s no free speech on a air flight. The airlines are publicly-owned businesses regulated by security laws.

This country is now softer than baby poop.

In this day and age of highly trained security personell, would it not make more sense to scruitinize (profiled) people descretely at the security checkpoints? Or is the TSA too busy doing body cavity searches on Grandma?

Ignorant and stupid. This guy should sue the passengers too. Half of the muslims in the world are Arab.

Is airport security going to far? Possibly yes. But the sad thing is, they didn’t go far enough before 9/11. If we give in to thier “discrimination” whining, we will be too lax once again. If they are in America, let them play by our rules. We need to look out for ourselves.

They have gone way to far. We are a country of many different cultures and i would be very embaressed if i was on that flight. Are some poeple just plain morons? I would be interested in it more to learn than to be afraid of some word on a t-shirt. People need to get a life.

As far as our airport security, I think maybe we just need to revamp it. I’ve been to France twice when I was younger (but as I’m 24, it hasn’t been that long, maybe 10 years ago?) and both times, walking through the terminal was pretty intense. Their security guards were walking around with automatic weapons. In London, before you can even get to the security screening, let alone on a plane, you pass through a check point of sorts and they digitally scan your face to see if you pop up as a security risk for some reason. It made me feel safer knowing that there were other security measures besides just walking through a metal detector.

Fish,

Actually, what the FBI does is BEHAVIORAL profiling,not specifically racial or ethnic.I have done considerable reading on the subject and it is amazing what they can do based on the behaviors shown by a suspect at the crime scene.Robert Ressler(retired,FBI Behavioral Science Unit) has been instrumental in developing the methods used in criminal behavior profiling and has written several books on the subject.He coined the term “serial killer” and has probably done consulting on some of the shows you mention.Anyway, this leads to the “profile” of who they then investigate for a crime.Gavin DeBecker is another security specialist who wrote an excellent book(The Gift of Fear)that talks about behavioral profiling as it relates to personal safety,especially as it relates to women and children. Just having a certain religion or wearing specific clothing proves nothing.My concern would be( as others have already posted) that security would be so focused on their so-called “profile” that they would miss other possible dangers because they don’t fit the “profile”,as Dan S1 stated.Just because someone is stereotyped to be a terrorist( or whatever) doesn’t mean they are, just because they are stereotyped to NOT be a terrorist (or whatever) doesn’t mean they aren’t.Plenty of “thieves” these days don’t wear baggy pants or carry a gun-the current economic crisis has driven that home.I really doubt an actual terrorist would have tried to draw this kind of attention to himself anyway.

So, let me get this straight, persons of Arabic descent are suspicious only if they wear clothes that have writing in a language other than Arabic? I think terrorists are already on to that one. I think the question we’re really trying to answer is “what is reasonable suspicion?”. In the case of the Muslim family (earlier this week) and Mr. Jarrar, I don’t see a good reason for suspecting them of a possible terrorist threat.

That’s like looking at a thunderstorm and not having good reason to suspect it of lightning strikes.

tau’s (steal my moniker) kendall,

“That’s like looking at a thunderstorm and not having good reason to suspect it of lightning strikes.”

Then why don’t we ban Muslims from airlines if they’re all terrorists? Stereotypes are not reasons, but they make nice red herrings.

I’m guessing that this was determined to be a first amendment case, i.e., a violation of the man’s right to free speech. If a French person can board a plane with a T-shirt that said viva la France, then an arabic person must be afforded the same right. I think the monetary amount is ludicrous, but it was a violation of a US citizen’s first amendment rights. ALL US citizens enjoy this right, not just the WASPs.

Your logic is backwards. Are all Muslims terrorists? No. Are all terrorists Muslims? Yes (except for a rare exception that is statistically insignificant). Does every cumulo-nimbus cloud produce lightning? No. Does all lightning come from cumulo-nimbus clouds? Yes (except for a rare exception that is statistically insignificant).

Stereotypes are not reasons, but statistics are.

Stewardess: Sir, are you a Musim:
Man: Yes I am.
Stewardess: Are you a Terrorist?
Man: Yes I am.
Stewardess: Do you have a bomb?
Man: Yes.
Stewardess: Is it a time bomb>
Man: Yes
Stewardess: Do you want an aisle seat, or a window seat?
Man: Window Seat.
Stewardess: Give your bomb and I will put in the overhead storage for you.
Man: Thank you very much.
Stewardess: Enjoy your flight.

Please note: No racial profiling. No problem at all. The terrorist will not collect $240,000, and all are happy.

See, Terrorists can get along with us.

39 Minutes later: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

tau’s (steal your moniker) kendall:

No, not all terrorists are Muslim (some are separatists, nationalists, communists, etc.) and statistics are evidence not reasons in and of themselves. If its statistics you want, then the probability of Muslims wearing t-shirts with Arabic writing and hopping a plane to crash/blow-up somewhere is small indeed! I assume that terrorists would want to be less, not more, obvious to travelers.

I’m interested in how we would implement this religious-based profiling system. Do I need to bring my “I’m a Catholic” card to the airport (Note to terrorists: keep your “I’m a Muslim” card at home)? Or would it be based on one’s ethnicity? If its ethnicity, how do we distinguish between Arabs, Persians, Asians, etc. that might be-could possibly be-or might sometime in the future be terrorists?

Ok all you people that are upset with airlines and goverment agencies trying protect us from evil doers. Lets just go back to the old way. No security check points anymore and anyone can wander thru out the airport with worry about anyone checking(profiling) up on them. It worked so well back in the 50’s and 60’s. Profiling is so much worse than planes being hijacked and then crashed into buildings. Where do you draw the line? Someone is ALWAYS going to upset over whatever rules are used. All the rules for war have been completely made obsolete and unenforceable now that the evil doers have no face,no country or boundaries, or most importantly NO RULES!! The agencies that are trying to protect us have way more knowledge and expertise than ANYONE ON THIS BLOG! Let them do their job, and pray to GOD that our elected officials give them good and wise guidence. Will they make some mistakes now and then? Yes. Who out there is perfect? Certainly not me. We all learn from our mistakes, but we must not be so restricted by them that we become unable to the job required to be successful.

The muslim community has refused to police its own ranks and, until they do, all are suspect. I have a different perspective from most as I come from a counterterrorism background and was in my office in the Pentagon on 9/11. Conversely, my wife taught in the Islamic Saudi Academy, a component of the Saudi embassy, and my personal physican and my surgeon were both muslim.

roosk1:

The case referred to by the post isn’t about security measures, its about an airline’s attempt to enforce a non-arabic dress code. I believe Mr. Jarrar had already gone through security. Don’t conflate an objection to this case with the idea that we no longer need airport security.

Bill:

I assume that all Catholics and Evangelicals are suspect since they have failed to “police their ranks” sufficiently enough to prevent acts of terrorism?

kendall’s toe,

So your opinion is that everyone is just as likely to blow up a plane. Even though virtually all plane hijackings have been perpetrated by arabic muslims, you feel that a 90 year old Catholic is just as likely to come onto the plane and fly it into the White House.

Furthermore, you claim that if a person makes it through the security checkpoint, that person has been cleared of any evil intent towards the plane.

What you need to do is rewind 7 years. Remember what happened and keep in your mind that it can happen again. While the family involved in this incident was likely innocent, keep in mind that the arabic muslim terrorists use women and children in their jihad. The shame is that it is the acts of a radical few that have created this perception that everyone who looks like the arabic muslim terrorist is one.

Is this racist? No, it is fear. Perhaps misplaced fear, but you cannot deny what people would feel on that plane. They observed something they didn’t understand and raised the alarm. They could not read the shirt. It could have said “let’s blow up this plane” or it could have been as innocent as “Obama was born in Kenya”.

When people are belong to a group where some of their kind has done wrong, the others in that group need to learn to adapt their behavior to distance themselves from the rotten apples. It isn’t right, but people don’t pay attention to logic. Take your charge against the Catholics and Evangelicals. See you are no better than those people on the plane.

Think (because you should and I know you can),

I never said that Catholics were likely to hijack planes. My response to Bill was simply that we shouldn’t be accusing innocent Muslims of failing to police themselves when other faiths commit terrorist acts and don’t receive the same dictate. The more we stigmatize, the more the terrorists win.

I also didn’t say that someone who passes a security checkpoint is somehow immune from suspicion. If Mr. Jarrar had acted suspiciously (e.g. tried to light his shoe), then of course action is warranted. I don’t think wearing a t-shirt with Arabic immediately makes you a suspected terrorist. If so, then the terrorists have achieved their goal of instilling irrational fear in Americans. I don’t want terrorists to win, and the more irrational we become the closer they come to winning.

Terrorists are already aware that Muslim-looking citizens are under increased scrutiny. They count on it. Take 9/11. The hijackers made every effort to “look American”. If we focus only on a specific ethnicity, then we miss the Asian terrorist or the next John Walker Lindh.

Finally, I am only talking about the specific situation addressed in the TOD post. There may be instances when one’s background warrants increased suspicion (by, say, a federal agency). Again, stop conflating my objection in this case to all cases and all instances of suspicious airport activity.

Kendall’s Tau,

My comments were based on observations in nearly thirty countries I have been in (not vacation) and my experience in five hostile fire areas. When you are under attack choices become very simple and pragmatism eventually takes the place of philosophy if you intend to survive. Western culture is at that place. I ask you to look at the globe and identify the source of violence and instability then judge for your self.

Our security at airports should be modeled like that of Israel and El-Al, They have never had so much as an incident.

I find what happened to this family to be outrageous. Their “suspicious” conversation consisted of where is the safest seat to sit on a plane. I have read articles on this subject. I have seen television news segments on this subject. Should Diane Sawyer not be allowed to fly and/or pulled from her plane?

For all those who say Muslims create the problem since they are behind a majority of the incidents–please at least examine your statement. Of all the Muslim related terrorism incidents, not one involved someone taking their entire family along for the journey.

The rule of thumb on “suspicious” behavior should be: if you saw the same behavior from a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl would you think the same.

I guess you need it to be spoon-fed to you since you can’t grasp the basic logic. Your Catholic “example” is useless because there is no commonality between the two groups. Name the last flight that a Catholic terrorist brought down. While you are Googling that…

“and statistics are evidence not reasons in and of themselves” Really? Since statistics are based on factual data scientifically compiled they are indeed reasons. Grab Webster’s and look them up, the two words are quite similiar indeed. Or just look at it another way, which is that the evidence provided by the statistics can only be judged to mean one thing. The stats don’t lie…

Get your profiling system right. The stats say Middle East Muslims, not Muslims.

The bottom line is that we have not had any major incidents that have not been stopped since 9/11. Someone is doing something right. Take it like it is. Don’t wear something that is in question when boarding a plane. Everyone here is talking about the poor people that have been inconvenienced. What about the people on the plane that were scared to death. If I was on a plane and felt strongly enough and felt that uneasy about someone, I would say something and expect the airlines to react. The fact is that the person wearing the T-shirt was looking for attention and he got it. He does not deserve to compensated for being a jerk.

I think he should experience st louis driving, get in an accident with me (being his fault of course) then, make it up to me over sushi dinner, where he would fall in love over my devilsh red headed womanly ways:)

My reaction is yes responding to this level of paranoia goes too far. I think we can ask some of the elder Japanese Americans about this. There is nothing dangerous about arabic script - one of our rights in America freedom of speech. If the passengers expressed discomfort, then they should have been asked to leave. Also, America needs to wake up - there are many more majority languages in this world besides English.

What does a “Muslim” look like? I haven’t a clue, any more than what a Catholic (excluding clergy and religious) looks like. I couldn’t tell the difference between a Muslim and any other person of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean ethnic heritage. Would it make me uneasy that someone had Arabic script on his/her shirt? No. I might wonder what it said, since I don’t read Arabic, but that would be as far as it went, unless said person was also acting suspiciously–sweating profusely, looking around constantly, gingerly carrying a package, or so forth. Hey, the fellow got through security, apparently unhampered.

Unless someone has religious paraphenalia with them– fingering a rosary, carrying a Bible or Quran, was obviously Semitic, with a full beard, long forelocks and wearing a yarmulke — I wouldn’t even hazard a guess about a stranger’s religion, which is none of my darn business, anyway.
What is amazing to me about worrying about airplane hijackings, although the first one recorded was in 1931 in Peru, is that they weren’t a common US phenomenon until the Cuban revolution. From 1958 through the 1970s, most hijackings were either to or out of Cuba, or had some Cuban connection. See http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/hijacking.html for details, but we have a decade of Cuba related aircraft hijack attempts, and a period 1968-72 where they happened at a rate of one a week by people of assorted ethnic backgrounds and for assorted reasons– now, we have 4 planes hijacked on one day 8 years ago, and suddenly all hijackers are Muslims? I think not.
Glad Mr Jarrar got some compensation.

When I read this story I kind of felt bad for this guy. But then I started to think about September 11th, my fellow friends who have died in Iraq and I started thinking about how many people have died in the past 30 years because of crazy Muslim ideology.

I like many other guys have served in this war on terrorism and what I see and feel is strong. I think that there are good Muslim folks out there. I’ve met them, talked to them, had good conversations with them. This particular incident with this guy and his shirt in my opinion isn’t overreacting on the airlines part. I think they should have done what they should have. What IF this guy really planned on something later and we never stopped him beforehand? What then? Well we all know what would have happened. We can’t take chances with people of Muslim origin IF we are led to believe that we have a legitimate suspicion to stop them and search em.

I think what happened here is ultimately a result of this guy suffering for the actions of many other Muslims who have committed terrorist acts against the U.S. and other countries. I don’t feel that bad for him anymore when I start to think of how many people died on Sept. 11th.

Re the various remarks about screening Grandma– My aunt (not a grandma, but a lady 75+) and her traveling companion, another woman of the same age, have both been taken to task on several occasions by the TSA. Once, my aunt had her plastic round tip kindergarten sissors taken from her before boarding an international flight. (For some reason, she got to keep her knitting needles, but couldn’t knit, with no way to snip the yarn.)

I think the US should require a course in comparative religion (not proselytizing, just familiarizing people with the world’s great religious histories) for high school graduation. Maybe some of the madness of judging people by religious background would stop, once they realize that Muslims accept Abraham and Jesus as prophets and part of their heritage, in addition to Mohammad. Jews, Muslims, Christians– we’re all kissing cousins on this little blue bus. I haven’t a clue why we can’t all get along.

What’s ‘going too far’ is awarding this fool $240,000 in compensation.

Simply incredible…

…and, of course, the ACLU was right in the middle of this nonsense.

The airline was likely playing it safe, and playing to the majority of their customers’ concerns. This was a decision they would likely make again.

While it is true that Muslim extremists are most commonly responsible for U.S. terrorism, should an entire language be out of bounds for wearing in airports?

There are laws that restrict the freedom of speech, such as “shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater”. While the man’s shirt made no direct threat on anyone’s life, it did create a panic that could have resulted in someone, including the man himself, getting hurt, which is a restriction on free speech provided by past Supreme Court decisions.

I would expect there to be problems at an airport if I shared similarities with an international criminal, and then wore a shirt in the man’s native language. Therefore I believe an intelligent Muslim would come to the same conclusion about themselves. The man seems to have knowingly put himself into an incendiary position and then sued a company for something he knew and maybe even hoped would happen.

Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists seem to be Muslims. Some of them claim to be Teflon-coated Muslims, free of the mess created by their errant comrades. I don’t hear many condemning the bad behavior publicly. Silence is consent.

Let’s see now Obama is going to release all the Muslims who caused or planned the 9/11 attack.He wants them to get a decent trial which we will have to pay for then when they are released they all come to USA and kill more of us.What a guy…………

Any intelligent, sensible person, who is aware of why there are security checks at airports, why passengers and airlines are sceptical, would not where such a t-shirt when travelling by air in the first place. He would realize that what others can’t read would only cause their imaginations to run wild. On the other hand, that is perhaps exactly what the intention was. In either case, the wearer of the t-shirt enticed reactions. And that is what he got.