This Friday I’ll board a transatlantic flight to America. With new restrictions in place it’s difficult to know how easy or hard that might be, but now it seems that I might also have to be careful not to wear something that might offend.
On August 12th an Iraqi born US resident tried to board a plane from JFK to California wearing a black t-shirt with white arabic and English writing that read “We will not be silent.”
Raed Jarrar was asked by security personal and a member of the Jet Blue airline to change his attire before he flew because the t-shirt was “people are feeling offended.”
When Jarrar was asked to change his t-shirt he asked “How come you are asking me to change my t-shirt? Isn’t this my constitutional right to wear it? I am ready to change it if you tell me why I should. Do you have an order against Arabic t-shirts? Is there such a law against Arabic script?” The answer he was given by one of the security personnel was “You can’t wear a t-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It is like wearing a t-shirt that reads “I am a robber” and going to a bank”.
The t-shirt was purchased in Washington DC and is one of thousands printed in several different languages. Similar, and indeed more pointed t-shirts are readily available for purchases in stores and online.
Jarrar was told by one of the security personnel. “We cant make sure that your t-shirt means we will not be silent, we don’t have a translator. Maybe it means something else”. Despite the phrase also appearing in English the security personnel insisted he change because the airline didn’t have translators to hand and “anything in Arabic is suspicious because maybe it’ll mean something bad.”
Jet Blue offered to compromise by buying a new t-shirt for Mr Jarrer who was by now surrounded by security staff one of whom apparently said “Let’s end this the nice way”. At this point Jarrer decided to let Jet Blue buy him a new t-shirt so that he could go on his way. The Jet Blue staff member then asked him what kind of t-shirt she should buy him and suggested a ‘I heart NY’ t-shirt to which one of the security personal reportedly said “No, we shouldn’t ask him to go from one extreme to another.”
“I feel very sad that my personal freedom was taken away like this. I grew up under authoritarian governments in the Middle East, and one of the reasons I chose to move to the US was that I don’t want an officer to make me change my t-shirt.” Jarrer said.
It is precisely this kind of xenophobic ignorance that saddens me so much about the so called ‘land of the free’, a term that seems more ironic than iconic in recent times.
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Arabic T-shirt sparks airport row
Raed Jarrar’s blog
Tell JetBlue what you think of this
Buy one of the “offensive” shirts
Wrote the following comment on Aug 30, 2006 at 6:23 pm
I’m glad Jarrar said this “I feel very sad that my personal freedom was taken away like this. I grew up under authoritarian governments in the Middle East, and one of the reasons I chose to move to the US was that I don’t want an officer to make me change my t-shirt.â€
Who might have predicted back in the day that airports would be the place where Big Brother (a la “1984”) would estabilsh its force? Not to mention, the whole “gouge the consumer by making them pay for everything they could have brought with them if we didn’t have stupid rules” thing.
It strikes me as so ridiculous that millions of people have to take their shoes off to be scanned because of one rather deranged person. It seems so backwards that we still don’t have technology that can sense whether or not the water in your plastic bottle is indeed H20 or nitroglycerine. It’s a whole lot of pass the buck on down. And crush them in the meantime. But occasionally, give a free t-shirt.
Humph.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 30, 2006 at 6:28 pm
That is sad.
I remember taking my daughter to the airport on New Years eve a few months after 9/11. She was 12 at the time and she wore a pair of jeans, tennis shoes and nice sweater. The jeans were new, a Christmas gift and so were the tennis shoes. She was flying on an 11pm flight from Cincinnati to Boston to meet her father to go skiing and I didn’t see a need to dress a child in an evening gown. After checking in we were asked to step behind a partition so that her luggage could be searched and she could be frisked. What raised suspicion about a 12 year old flying alone over the holiday? I was told that most persons flying first class make the effort to “dress up”. Ludacris.
I wonder if the reaction would have been the same to a slogan written in Italian or French.
You should wear a pair of Armor of God jammies on your plane trip. Carry a bible, wave an American flag and perhaps stick a George Bush is Right bumper sticker on your bum. Your sure to make it thru customs a lot easier if they think you’re one of “us”.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 30, 2006 at 6:36 pm
It sounds like poor judgment was exercised by the security workers – I cannot imagine something like that was a “security rule,” sounds like the foolishness of a man interpreting wrongly.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 30, 2006 at 7:47 pm
It is becoming increasingly clear that no one is in charge of the airport Dog-n-Pony show. It is also becoming increasingly clear that personal freedoms are no longer a priority in the US.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2006 at 12:23 am
What?!? Okay, that’s just wrong. Talk about discrimination…
*feels like buying a shirt with Arabic script on it and wearing it the next time she goes flying*
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2006 at 2:44 am
You and me both Rachel. In fact if I did and they asked me to get another shirt I’d have one at the ready saying “I FEEL SAFE NOW THAT MY FREEDOM IS FUCKED!” Then when they say I can’t wear that I’d produce another with the words “CAN I WEAR THIS T-SHIRT IN THE LAND OF THE FREE?”
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2006 at 4:24 am
Well, at least with good grammar, whatever you say is likelier to be clear. Even if it’s not worth saying. ;-)
*cough* Don’t look at the bad grammar in that.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2006 at 6:05 am
dude thats fu©#ed up! i mean i love my country and everything…but i hate how ass backwards everything is…i think thats lame they made him change his shirt…i mean they pulled that shit at my highschool. a girl is allowed to walk around practiacally naked and they wont do anything, but the girl wearing a sex pistols shirt had to change it cause it had the word sex on. people are just stupid and freak out about stupid stuff…idk..maybe im just more laidback and trust people easily.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2006 at 8:32 am
I can see that the ‘Grammergate’ affair will run and run. :-)
Wrote the following comment on Sep 19, 2006 at 4:44 am
What is in Arabic is not correct it not clear
I speek and write Arabic and who made this shirt can write Arabic.
Thanks
Wrote the following comment on Sep 21, 2006 at 3:16 am
The counter-argument is that the guy must have been some kind of an idiot to wear a T-shirt like that to an airport. I think most would agree that you should be able to wear what you like without fear of persecution, but the guy was obviously out to get a reaction and it served him right if his prank backfired.
Wrote the following comment on Sep 21, 2006 at 2:03 pm
The counter argument is absolutely absurd. If you were asked to change a shirt saying “equal rights for gays” then you’d have every right to be mad as hell. This is no different.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 23, 2006 at 6:51 pm
where can i get the shirt ??? I will miss my plane to wear it. But being so white i glow in the dark will they stop me ??
Wrote the following comment on Oct 23, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Hi Rebecca, I just hunted around the net for you and found you can buy one of the “offensive” shirts here at https://thecriticalvoice.org/order/. Let us know how it goes if you get one.