No Non-Arabic Shirt, No Service

The NYCLU and ACLU are suing the Transportation Security Administration and Jet Blue over an incident where a passenger was forced to cover/change his shirt, which had Arabic lettering. Last year, Reid Jarrar, an American resident of Iraqi descent, was taking a JetBlue flight at JFK when a TSA official asked him to over his shirt, which read "We Will Not Be Silent" in both English and Arabic. The shirt's message is taken from the motto of an anti-Nazi resistance group, the White Rose.

Even though Jarrar made it through screening, a TSA official confronted him at the gate. From the NYCLU:

[TSA Inspector] Harris brought Jarrar to the JetBlue counter and told him that he would have to remove his shirt because other passengers were not comfortable with the Arabic script...

...According to the complaint, Harris told Jarrar that it is impermissible to wear an Arabic shirt to an airport and equated it to a "person wearing a t-shirt at a bank stating, 'I am a robber.'"...

...Jarrar attempted to assert his constitutional right to wear the t-shirt, but became intimidated after he was surrounded by Harris and several JetBlue officials. He worried he would miss his flight or be arrested and detained indefinitely. The lead JetBlue customer service crewmember stated that she would buy Jarrar a new shirt to wear on top of his own t-shirt as a "compromise." Left with no other choice, Jarrar reluctantly agreed, and was allowed on the plane only after the JetBlue agents ripped up his boarding pass and changed his seat from the front of the plane to the very back of the plane. He was then forced to board the plane first, even before disabled passengers and those traveling with children.

The NYCLU and ACLU claim that Jarrar's First and Fifth Amendment rights were violated. Also, a Hunter College student was allegedly told by a Department of Transportation official that she shouldn't wear the shirt on the Staten Island Ferry.

Related: The Post reports that the controversial new Khalil Ghibran School in Brooklyn have only six Arabic students out of 44 students who have enrolled for the school's inaugural year. Principal Debbie Almontaser was also criticized for first seeming to condone "Intifada NYC" t-shirts (made by a group that shares space with an organization she represents), but she later "condemned the T-shirt message's connection to Palestinian terrorism."

Update: Almontaser resigned as principal of the Khalil Ghibran school. Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement during his radio show; he said she was smart but also appreciated that she made the decision to resign because she felt she was becoming the focus, versus the the school itself.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on August 10, 2007 12:13 PM

Comments [rss]

ugh

Again, suing for what???!! Please put me on this jury!

guest

what if he were jewish with hebrew script saying the exact same thing? russian with cyrillic? chinese with kanji? anyone claiming this is not about race is pretty delusional.

guest

Sorry, but I have to wonder why, out of his entire wardrobe, he chose to wear a tshirt with an untranslated Arabic phrase, for going thru airport security.

Sounds to me like he is indeed a jerk trying to cause a sensation and be "oppressed." 10-to-1 he'll be shopping his "I was victimized" story to the Islamic media.

- Liberal but not guilty

citychik

No one can say what the guy's intention was for wearing the shirt. For all we know, it was the only clean shirt he had available that day. Instead of complaining about his shirt, perhaps it would have been more constructive had his fellow passengers engaged him in a dialogue about its message.

qwerty

"AccHarris told Jarrar that it is impermissible to wear an Arabic shirt to an airport and equated it to a person wearing a t-shirt at a bank stating, 'I am a robber.'"

That is possibly the dumbest thing that I have read in my entire life.

Nick S

who gives a fuck about this?? MORE JEREMY BLAKE POSTS!

midtown

I have no problem with him wearing the shirt - I perceive it to be thought-provoking, not threatening.

I also have no problem with JetBlue acting as they did - if there was concern that it might upset other passengers then it was not unreasonable to ask him to cover it up with another piece of clothing. He was not denied passage.

I don't see the need for a constitutional debate on this one folks.

moneda

I wonder how the people who agree with how this American tax payer was treated would feel about a white guy being denied access to a government building because his t-shirt had something in English written on it. Y'know I heard Timothy McVeigh spoke English!

grippy

What if the shirt had been worn by a woman of the same descent? Some white frat boy? A wholesome-looking girl?

Profiling pure and simple. There was nothing inflammatory/offensive about the shirt per se, and no other type of passenger would have been treated like that, period. He made no threats and caused no disturbance. Oh, so people weren’t “comfortable” with it? Well, I’m not “comfortable” with screaming infants. Guess I better whine to an agent that they either be muzzled or denied boarding.

And what’s this garbage: “he should have known” – known what? That he can’t get on a plane because people don’t like the way a shirt looks on him? That’s as absurd as saying an unattractive person in a swimsuit should be banned from the beach. You may have the right to give them dirty looks, but you can't demand they leave.

And uh, he had already passed through security. Did whoever complained afterward have that little confidence in the screening process? Oh wait…

And if any agency had a legitimate problem with this guy, he would have come up on a sophisticated watch list long before boarding, right? Oh wait…

Never mind, profile away! Cavity searches for all!

guest

yeah because taking 30 seconds to register really makes that users comment more relevant. Tard

captainblackout

This comment thread is a great example of when to use hide guest comments.

guest

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH!!!

guest

asshole should have made him ride in the wheel well and freeze his fuckin islamic terrorist ass off.

guest

the number refernces are all screwed up now because gothamist deleted a post

There's some irony for you.

guest

"The captain would have declared the flight a no-go because of the T-shirt..."

do you realize how dumb that actually sounds? no captain would do that and hope to keep his/her job.

guest

Gothamist,

It might be better if, in the future, you could simply erase the text to censor a post, but leave the actual posting space there, so people know what others might be referring to.

guest

the number refernces are all screwed up now because gothamist deleted a post

guest

#73 has summarized it all and correctly. There is no need for further comment. If anyone insists on arguing this further please cite some actualy case law to back up your assertions.

guest

Jarrar's is a lost cause. Free speech ends at the door of the aircraft. The captain could turn away the Pope if he felt like it -- FAA regulations and a century of aviation custom gives the captain total discretion.

The TSA agent was stupid for even confronting Jarrar. All that was needed was a discreet conversation with the captain. The captain would have declared the flight a no-go because of the T-shirt, no further explanation necessary -- change your shirt or find another flight, son.