Profiling racism

A police state? Travellers are thinking twice before stepping into the tense atmosphere of international airports; Arabs are thinking more than twice
Profiling racism
How "civilised" is harassing and detaining people on racial, ethnic and religious grounds? Fatemah Farag checks in
"Arab only guidelines for boarding a plane:
1. The reading of religious verses during flight is prohibited in fear that the words be a code for terrorist organisations;
2. His/her nails must be filed and they should stand by their seat and await the airhostess for approval before taking their seat;
3. He/she should carry a certificate of good conduct from the American Embassy at his/her country of origin;
4. A certificate notarised by the Aviation Institute in Florida proving that he/she has never been trained to fly;
5. If there is only one Arab on a flight and the rest of the passengers are "Western" he must leave the plane in the interest of the safety of the rest of the passengers. If there is only one Westerner on a flight of Arabs, the administration will be forced to make the Arabs leave the plane to protect the life of the Westerner.
A Western official source declared that they do not implement racist policies and that airlines will continue to allow both Arabs and dogs to ride planes."
It took a few minutes while reading through this e- mail being circulated in Arabic to realise it was a joke. Since the events of 11 September, opting to fly has been a tense decision for most people. Thought of airline and airport safety and security measures weigh heavy on everyone's minds, but particularly for people with Arab and Muslim names and/or "features". As airline and airport security staff increasingly resort to racial, ethnic and religious profiling in their attempt to protect the "civilised" world, Arabs and Muslims the world over -- even those who just look Arab or Muslim -- must brace themselves for the possibility of harassment and possible detention at international airports.
The e-mail circular is a bitter expression of what the Arab and Muslim world has come to expect when venturing beyond its borders into the airports of the "West." The cases have been many. "My husband, who holds a British passport, was on a business trip to England and had to stop in Paris in transit," recounted an Egyptian professional who preferred anonymity. "They [at passport control] looked at his passport and accused him of forging it because he had a Muslim name. He was detained, treated badly and eventually released many hours later without apology." As we discussed her husband's maltreatment, a friend who had just returned from Germany informed us that she had not been harassed. We mused over the reason why she would be treated like a "normal" Westerner and not the "Arab" she is. "It is because you are a woman," was one suggestion. "It's because you look Western," was another.
Across the globe, Arab and Muslim travellers are feeling the brunt of "anti-terrorist security measures." Take, for example, what happened last month to Tareq Ali, who is not only a full-fledged British national, but a renowned figure of the British left. Ali, who was in Germany for a seminar, was detained by German passport authorities as he was boarding a flight back to England. His name, features as well as a German-published copy of Karl Marx's essay On Suicide found in his bag had so disturbed the German airport security personnel that one of them proudly informed other passengers on Ali's flight that they'd "caught a terrorist." Ali, who recounted the details of his brief detention and interrogation in the British daily The Independent, told Al-Ahram Weekly that he said he had been "lucky" because he is well known. "I received hundreds of e-mails from all over the world," Ali said. "People recounted what they were going through in different parts of the Western world and were pleased that I had written about this event. The irony is that in the US and Britain, so many of the immigration staff are themselves people of dark skin. I think some international body should set up a register where we can all report these incidents."
The Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American-Arab Anti- discrimination Committee (ADC) are among the organisations that are involved in documenting discrimination against airline passengers on religious, ethnic and racial grounds. In a recent meeting between representatives of these organisations and US Secretary of Transportation Norman Y Mineta, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad complained that "more than 90 cases of airline passenger profiling have been reported to our civil rights department -- including incidents in which pregnant women were poked to check their pregnancies."
Harassment while flying comes against a backdrop of escalating hate crimes against Arab- and Muslim-looking people in the West. CAIR alone has documented over 900 cases of anti-Muslim incidents ranging from verbal harassment to murder since the 11 September events. According to CAIR, "Many of these incidents have involved those who, like Sikhs and Christian Arabs, are perceived to be Muslims or Middle Eastern- looking."
The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also received several hundred complaints "alleging crimes apparently motivated by bias and hate... Beatings and other violent assaults were reported across the country, as were deaths and bomb threats. Mosques and Sikh temples have been shot at, vandalised and defaced and bricks were thrown through the window of an Islamic bookstore in Virginia. At several US universities, foreign students from the Middle East and South Asia have been targeted for attacks, and some have chosen to leave the country because they feared attacks. Throughout the country, affected community members have been afraid to leave their homes, go to work or wear traditional clothing for fear of possible hate crimes against them."
The roots of hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims can be found in attitudes such as the one expressed by Washington Times writer Suzanne Fields: "George W Bush has gone out of his way to make distinctions between good Muslims and the blasphemers of their faith; between the tolerant Muslims and the murderous, nihilistic terrorists. We are frequently warned against negative stereotyping and demonising ... [yet] in our eagerness to follow the president's example to hug a Muslim twice a day, we must realise that some of these Muslims are neither huggable nor our friends, nor do they want to be." Fields goes on to lament that the "racist" label today is unfortunately "applied to anyone who takes a close look at the contradictions of modern Islam."
Back to international travel. Ali confirms that discrimination "is not just against Arabs and Muslims, though we are the main target at the moment. If you have a Muslim name you should be prepared for serious questioning at European airports."
Ali went on to point out a deeper problem. "The states of Europe encourage a hostility against everyone who is not a resident in the North. This is one of the central contradictions of globalisation. They are wrecking the countries of the South, creating massive job losses, but refuse to tolerate the free movement of labour. In China, by the year 2010, there will be 10 million more workers out of work. It's normal that they will try and move to regions where there is work. And so barriers are being built. This is a clear case of global capitalism creating a contradiction which could become explosive."
Despite the dire ramifications of racist attitudes in the West against the "South," there are no signs that the onslaught is about to abate. Ali pointed out that there is an "acute paranoia" in the West after the incidents of 11 September and ethnic profiling is common in these countries. "In the US, where the average person is more ignorant than in Western Europe, everyone with dark skin and a beard is suspect. So many poor Sikhs have been the victims of violence. A few have been killed," says Ali. "The new laws being rushed through in the US and Britain would enable them to hold any foreigner as a suspect indefinitely and the FBI is asking for permission to torture suspects to 'jump-start the process' of confessions. All one can say is that the terrorists are achieving their aims."
Ali was referring to measures included in the United Kingdom's Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Bill, the new security proposals of the European Union and the military order signed by US President George W Bush on 13 November allowing trials by special military commissions of non-US citizens suspected of "international terrorism." The latter has been described by Amnesty International as discriminatory as it affords foreign nationals "a lower standard of justice than US nationals."
James Zoghby, president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), has also drawn attention to Attorney General John Ashcroft's recent announcements regarding the arrest of possible "terrorist supporters" -- arrests that have reached over 1,100 and are said to be growing daily. "What is both unclear and troubling is who are the 1,100? And why are they being held?" Zoghby said. "Most, we believe, are simply individuals caught in the web of the very large net cast by law enforcement. Some might be guilty only of visa overstays, while others are simply being held, with no charges, waiting to be investigated."
In response to such fears Ashcroft spoke out two weeks ago and told the "terrorists among us" to be warned: if visas are overstayed by even one day "We will arrest you. ... In the war on terror, the Department of Justice will arrest and detain any suspected terrorist who has violated the law."
As for anti-terrorism legislation in the UK, HRW has announced that it is "dismayed" at the measures in the bill, claiming that it breaches core human rights guarantees. "There are few rights so fundamental as the right not to be detained without adequate safeguards and the right to seek asylum," HRW said. On the matter of the new EU security proposals, HRW has noted that it is concerned about the "broad definition" of terrorism, saying that it threatens freedom of speech, assembly and association." HRW also condemned "the lack of fair trials guarantees in the proposal for a European arrest warrant" and "the threats to the international refugee protection system."
Zoghby notes that the new legislation, as well as the renewed use of racial profiling, is seriously compromising people's basic rights. Recounting a recent television debate between himself and a US congressman on whether airline security personnel should be permitted to single out Arabs for special searches and security procedures, Zoghby said that the congressman was "strident" in his defence of the practice: "He noted that the 11 September terrorists were all Arabs, as were the 120 individuals on the Justice Department's terrorist watch list. Of course, he concluded, we should single out Arabs."
Zoghby went on to point out that because there has been a focus on Arab passengers, many mistakes have been made and many innocent people have been victimised. "I noted the example of a Republican congressman, an Arab American, who only three weeks ago was denied access to a flight because of his last name," says Zoghby. "I also gave other recent incidents of discrimination resulting from profiling -- two instances where pilots refused to fly with passengers named Mohamed in first class; and two separate cases where Hispanics and south Asians were removed from flights because they were thought to be Arabs."
In the end, all the bigotry is in vain. CAIR's Board Chairman Omar Ahmed points out that passenger profiling "creates a false sense of security for the travelling public." He suggests that a more effective method would be to increase the "level of training and professionalism of those who screen passengers" and apply heightened security measures "to all travellers -- not just to those who fit stereotypical images of what a terrorist should look like."
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See:
Forcing the issues :
War pages
War 15 - 21 November 2001
War 8 - 14 November 2001
War 1 - 7 November 2001
War 25 - 31 October 2001
War 18 - 24 October 2001
War 11 - 17 October 2001
Fall-out 4 - 10 October 2001
Fall-out 27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001
US Tragedy: The fall-out 20 - 26 September 2001
US Attacked 13 - 19 September 2001
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