Air travelling while Muslim
PASSING through screening can be time-consuming for any business traveller. But Nafees Syed, a lawyer in New York, has additional obstacles. “I have to go an extra hour earlier than anybody else, because it’s not random checking,” Syed said.
An American Muslim, Syed wears a hijab. More often than not, she said, she is pulled aside at security check-in for secondary screenings and pat-downs, the examiner feeling her head through the hijab.
Syed, along with many of her American Muslim friends and Islamic rights advocates, is all too familiar with what many refer to as the stigma of travelling while Muslim.
There are various ways, of course, that Muslims might draw unwanted attention from security officials at airports, such as when a Middle Eastern or other foreign-sounding name might result in being compared against nofly lists. But for followers of Islam who signal their identity through the way they dress, their clothing can sometimes feel like a red flag.
Being a business executive or a professional like Syed – a Yale Law School graduate and litigator in the prestigious firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner – does not necessarily exempt American Muslim travellers from the sort of scrutiny they say has become more common in recent years as a result of terrorist incidents and anti-Islamic political rhetoric.
Syed said that when travelling with non-Muslim colleagues, she avoids passing through security alongside them. “I don’t want them to see the humiliation I am going to go through,” she said.
Syed said she has not applied for the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck program, which can streamline security clearance for some travellers, after she asked around among other American Muslims. “Word on the Muslim street is that if you’re Muslim it’s either really hard to get that or it doesn’t necessarily help anyway,” she said.
Officials of the TSA, which conducts airport screenings, say the extra scrutiny is not a matter of focusing on religious groups but can be necessary because scanners can have trouble getting clear images under some types of clothing.
“Persons wearing head coverings, loose fitting or bulky garments may undergo additional security screening, which may include a pat-down,” Mike England, a TSA spokesman, said. “A pat-down will be conducted by a TSA officer of the same gender.” If an alarm can’t be resolved through a pat-down, he said, the passenger may be asked to remove the head covering in a private screening area.
But many Muslims contend that, too often, they are simply targets.
“Unfortunately, the global terror network created racial profiling against Muslims,” said Hilal Elver, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of The Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Freedom of Religion.
There are no reliable statistics on whether Americans who are Muslim, or might appear to be, are being subjected to stricter scrutiny by airport security officials. But various rights groups have flagged it as an issue of concern, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muslim Advocates, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the NAACP.
“It is a right for all of us as Ameri- cans to travel freely,” said Brenda F Abdelall, an official with Muslim Advocates, a national legal defence group based in Oakland, California. “For individuals to have to modify behaviour, or be concerned before they are travelling about what they may wear or what they may say is problematic.”
Some travel hubs, including Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, have noticeable numbers of Muslim women with headscarves working at security checkpoints.
But Asha Noor, an official with Take on Hate, a Muslim-rights advocacy group in Dearborn, Michigan, compared the situation to police departments hiring African-American officers while ignoring systemic bias. “Just because there might be a few more Muslims or Arab-Americans working at the Detroit airport, doesn’t change the culture of suspicion,” said Noor, who covers her hair.
Corey Saylor directs the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia. He acknowledges that not all TSA scrutiny can be attributed to racial profiling.
“We do see women getting secondary screenings frequently,” Saylor said. “But it is very hard in all hon- esty to say if it is the head scarf that is triggering that, or the fact that the head scarf is loose.”
Muslims are not the only religious group who might be subjected to extra screenings at airports because of what they wear. Sikhs, who cover their heads – typically with a turban for men, a long scarf for women – also often draw extra scrutiny.
“For Sikh Americans, humiliation is a prerequisite to air travel; we are pulled aside and profiled simply because of the way we look,” said Arjun Singh Sethi. He is the director of law and policy for the Sikh Coalition, a national group founded in the aftermath of 9/11, when some Sikhs were violently attacked.
“The turban is a sacred article of faith and stands for justice and equality,” Sethi said. “Observant Sikh Americans are mandated to wear it and should not be forced to remove it every time they travel.”
England, the TSA spokesman, said the agency was intent on becoming more culturally sensitive.
“TSA partners with organisations representing multicultural communities to gather input, facilitate mutual understanding and exchange information,” he said.