NEW YORK (AFP) – An airline passenger forced to cover his T-shirt because it displayed Arabic script has been awarded 240,000 dollars in compensation, campaigners said Monday.
Raed Jarrar received the pay out on Friday from two US Transportation Security Authority officials and from JetBlue Airways following the August 2006 incident at New York's JFK Airport, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced.
"The outcome of this case is a victory for free speech and a blow to the discriminatory practice of racial profiling," said Aden Fine, a lawyer with ACLU.
Jarrar, a US resident, was apprehended as he waited to board a JetBlue flight from New York to Oakland, California, and told to remove his shirt, which had written on it in Arabic: "We will not be silent."
He was told other passengers felt uncomfortable because an Arabic-inscribed T-shirt in an airport was like "wearing a T-shirt at a bank stating, I am a robber,'" the ACLU said.
Jarrar eventually agreed to cover his shirt with another provided by JetBlue. He was allowed aboard but his seat was changed from the front to the back of the aircraft.
Last week, nine Muslims, including three children, were ordered off a domestic US flight after passengers heard what they believed were suspicious remarks about security.
Although the passengers, eight of them US citizens, were cleared by the FBI, they were reportedly still barred from the AirTran flight.
Security has been at a high level in US airports since the September 11, 2001 hijacked airliner attacks against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
However, rights groups and representatives of the Muslim community say the security measures have led to frequent discrimination and harassment.
One of the few times I've heard something that came out of an ACLU lawyer's mouth, and wasn't instantly inclined to punch someone in the head. :P
Personally, I want to believe that Americans are better than this kind of stuff. To look at someone of arabic dissent or of the muslim faith, and assume they are a suicide bomber in the making is unjust and contradictory to the very values we want to protect against Islamic radicalism in the first place.
Now, I'm not usually a proponent of wanton litigation for every slight under the sun, and I understand that airlines are under extraordinary pressure to ensure the safety of their passengers. But in this case, being kicked off an airplane because of arabic text on your t-shirt is just inexcusable and sad, and I think an example needed to be set here.
5 comments:
The only reason you want to punch ACLU lawyers is because you hate civil liberties laws unless they protect your wallet. God forbid anyone would want to, say, protect blacks from racial profiling, sue companies that pay women less for the same job, or try to gain equal rights for gays and lesbians. Man, what are those people smoking?
That said, I agree with the rest of the post. That was a stupid decision on the part of the airline and they deserve to have the shit sued out of them.
Right, it's because I don't believe in the quality of human beings, ethics, or moral imperative. I only believe in material wealth and the almighty dollar. That must be it, because as a conservative, I can't possibly be a good person, or hold dear values that contribute to the well being of mankind.
On a related note, outrageously pretentious snobbery also makes me want to punch people in the head...
LOL!!!
You two (insert cartoonish music).
LOL. If you believe in free speech and other civil liberties then why would you want to punch an ACLU lawyer?
And for the record, my comment had nothing to do with conservativism at all, just with your choice of words, which seemed to show some severe disdain for a group whose entire mission is to protect civil liberties.
Ah, and the wallet thing was just to get your goat, which I apparently did. Hehe....your goat is mine!
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