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Arabic T-shirt sparks airport row

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 31 August 2006
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Discriminations-Minorit. USA Transports

Arabic T-shirt sparks airport row

8/31/2006 9:00:00 AM GMT

Jarrar, an architect of Iraqi descent, was wearing a T-shirt that read “We Will Not Be Silent”

“I grew up and spent all my life living under authoritarian regimes. And I know that these things happen. But I’m shocked that they happened to me here, in the U.S. Especially that I moved from Iraq because of the war that was waged in Iraq under titles like democracy and freedom,” said Iraqi-born architect Raed Jarrar.

Jarrar, an architect of Iraqi descent at JFK airport wearing a T-shirt that read “We Will Not Be Silent”, a slogan adopted by opponents of the war in Iraq and other conflict torn countries in the Middle East region, said that the security officials asked him to take off the T-shirt before boarding a flight at New York.

Arab human rights activist Jarrar was warned by officials that his black cotton T-Shirt, which carried the slogan in Arab and English, was “offensive” after he checked in for a JetBlue flight to California on 12 August.

Mr Jarrar said he was shocked such an action could be taken in the U.S.
U.S. transport officials launched an investigation after a complaint from the U.S. Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Also JetBlue is investigating the incident.

"We’re not clear exactly what happened," a spokeswoman said.

Mr. Jarrar, who said was informed that many passengers had complained about his T-shirt, refused to take off the T-Shirt, saying that the slogan was not offensive; citing his constitutional rights to free expression.

"I refused to take off my T-shirt and put it on inside out because it looks like a punishment for something I have not done," he said.

But later on Mr Jarrar, 28, was forced by the airport official to take off the T-Shirt he was wearing and wear another one that was bought for him at the airport shop.

The incident took place two days after British authorities announced that they had foiled a “terror” plot to blow up jetliners over the Atlantic, said Jenny Dervin, a spokeswoman for JetBlue.

Jarrar, half Iraqi and half Palestinian who had moved to the United States last year from Jordan, where he was studying, has filed a complaint with JetBlue and is considering legal action.

"It’s ironic," Jarrar said. "I was silenced by the state."

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12362

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