According to a Reuters story yesterday, a hapless Iraqi architect was wrongly detained by airport security officials prior to boarding a flight from New York to California Tuesday. Raed Jarrar, who was wearing a t-shirt that read “We Will Not Be Silent” in both Arabic and English, was asked by security officers at New York’s JFK Airport to change his shirt before boarding.
A long argument ensued but the end result was that Jarrar changed into a new shirt. Though, given the current climate, most Americans would be in complete agreement that it might not be wise for a very Middle-Eastern looking man to get on a long flight wearing a shirt that says something in Arabic, Jarrar insisted that his constitutional rights had been violated.
In fact, Jarrar claims that his last words to security officers before heading for his seat were, “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. I will pursue this incident today through a Constitutional rights organization, and I am sure we will meet soon.”
He also told New York Public Radio, “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.”
Well, it’s true that Jarrar, who says he is half Iraqi, half Palestinian has moved here, but not because the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East ever asked him to change his t-shirt.
Jarrar is a radical Muslim agitator who’s purposes are, to say the least, suspect. He bills himself as an anti-war activist, but his affiliations tell a different story. For example, Jarrar is the director of the Iraq Project at Global Exchange, an organization formed by Medea Benjamin (Code Pink) and Lesilie Cagan who, according to David Horowitz, is a “60’s Stalinist.” Jarrar, along with Benjamin and Cagan, are blatant supporters of Saddam Hussein, North Korea, Syria, and anyone else who wishes to hasten the end of the United States.
Visit Jarrar’s anti-American blog and the first thing you notice is the row of flags at the top. Yes, one of the flags is the American flag, but the others are, in order of appearance, the flag of Iran, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq. One gets the sense that the American flag is there as a ruse.
So why is Jarrar here? His claims of constitutional rights are utterly false. The leftist charge that all speech is protected by the First Amendment certainly doesn’t apply to the misguided soul who yells “Fire!” in a movie theater and it doesn’t apply to the dim-wiited prankster who yells “Bomb!” in an airport. Anyone but Jarrar and his ultra leftist friends understands that Jarrar’s shirt could be reasonably construed as a possible threat of violence by other passengers.
As far as we can tell, Jarrar is not a U.S. citizen, so the argument over whether his free speech rights were violated by airport security is moot. The Constitutional rights enjoyed by Americans simply do not apply to non-Americans, whether they live here or not.
Jarrar’s actions illustrate the very serious danger we face. For fear of being labelled racists, government officials allow him to continue to live here while travelling freely to hostile countries such as Syria. Jarrar is not himself the trigger puller, but rather, the facilitator.
The constant rants and accusations in addition to the legal threats and challenges are creating a homeland security system that is skittish about openly identifying and challenging the Muslims who are almost always the source of terrorism. If we ever want to solve the problem, thugs like Jarrar need to be given the boot.
What Raed Jarrar’s motives for being in the US are may be a bit irrelevant to this issue at JFK.
The We Will Not Be Silent t-shirts are made in the US as part of the anti-war movement. They are often seen at peace rallies and so on – and I think it is a bit of a stretch to say that all the protestors at these events are Islamic agitators, facilitators or threats to national security. In fact, saying that wearing this t-shirt is a sign of terrorist activity is parallel to equating women who do not wear headscarves to prostitutes (or, at the very least, women without adequate “morality”.
I beg to differ with you Kirtane. The point is not the t-shirt but the fact that Jarrar is using it to instigate. I can guarantee you that most of the people on the plane don’t recognize it as an anti-war t-shirt – they see Arabic and get nervous.
The fact is that Jarrar is associated with some very unsavory groups including terrorist organizations.
Your comment only demonstrates that you suffer from I.Q. Deficit Disorder.
What a great article. This is the first report I found that tells us the real story of Raed. Great job, thank you!
This t-shirt incident is not about our rights or lack of rights in America. It’s about TERRORISM! Period. I apologize if that’s considered shouting, but, Wake up! We are in a war with terrorists who are barbarians that kill in the name of their god. They have invaded our country and killed here, in America, our home, and that cannot be tolerated. We know terrorists are in our country and we don’t feel safe anymore, so we have to do whatever is necessary to protect ourselves. If security has to be tightened at airports, our borders, etc. I say horrah!! If you are American you should say horrah also.
I don’t believe this is racism. It definitely is profiling, but we do that in all aspects of investigations. Like catching criminals, etc. It’s unfortunate that people who have their origins from the Middle East are feeling their rights are being denied and that all of America is against them, simply because they just happen to fit the “profile” of the terrorists.
The terrorists are the bad guys here. Our troops in the Middle East fighting for democracy for Iraq would probably like to change places with the malcontents and be inconvenienced and yes maybe even humiliated at the umbrage of such a suggestion of being detained for a t-shirt, or whatever.
Again I don’t believe it’s because of the heritage. It’s a matter of security and fighting terrorism in our home, America. I say if anyone, regardless of race, religion or nationality, that doesn’t like America, this anyone needs to either try to change it for the better or go live somewhere else.