Est. Oct. 3, 2010
Source: USA TODAY. A 36-year-old Ohio woman, who is half-Jewish and half-Arab, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the FBI and other federal agencies, saying she was yanked off an airplane at Metro Airport in Detroit on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, strip-searched, and jailed more than four hours in a dirty cell because of her ethnic background.
Source: Baltimore Sun.
Source: HuffPo. In our country, we have a tendency to condemn racist sentiment and actions, but then often leave it to others to confront it — usually, the racial or ethnic group that is at the receiving end. But all the organizing and advocacy within the so-called post-9/11 affected communities can only go so far in changing the climate in our country. Rather, all Americans must see hate violence as part of a history, past and present, of racism and xenophobia in our country, and make it clear that we cannot and should not tolerate in any shape or form.
Source: Tikun Olam. U.S. Muslim and Former Marine Added to No Fly List, Recruited to Become FBI Informant By RICHARD SILVERSTEIN. Mashal served seven years in the Marines, where he was in the K-9 unit. After leaving the service, he began his business and flew regularly around the country to train dogs for clients. Suddenly, one day while checking in for a flight from Chicago to Spokane, he was told he could not board because he was on the No Fly list…. No reason was specified for being on the list or why the government refused to remove him from it. During this entire period he could not fly nor could he pursue any business prospects that required him to fly…. Mashal believes, and I find this entirely credible, that the FBI may’ve added him to the No Fly list because it wanted to pressure him into becoming an informant.
Source: CBS/WBZ. Secure Communities Program Takes Effect In Massachusetts.
Supporters say it will help identify illegal immigrants arrested for crimes in Massachusetts. But the Democratic governor has expressed concerns of it opening the door to racial profiling. Patrick said the program will result in increased fear in minority communities.
Source: Siasat Daily. MI5, which carried out routine security vetting in 2006 for Scotland Yard, warned that he could have visited a training camp—which Mr Rahman vehemently denies. Pc Rahman was never charged, but had his security clearance removed—which effectively made him unemployable as a cop.
Source: WSJ. “The system is so opaque, they give no information to people denied boarding,” said Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, the ACLU attorney arguing for the plaintiffs. Choudhury said two plaintiffs were asked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to serve as informants in exchange for removal from the no-fly list…. In the case being argued in Portland …, all 15 plaintiffs said that, beginning in 2010, they learned they had been barred from air travel as “too dangerous to fly, but too harmless to arrest,” according to the ACLU’s complaint.
Source: Hartford Courant. The bill aims to reduce profiling by police officers during traffic stops in Connecticut. It requires the state to create a standardized form to record information from traffic stops and calls for creating a racial profiling prohibition advisory board. There is no standardized form now. The items that must be included on the standardized form are the race, age, gender, color, sexual orientation, and ethnicity of the driver, as well as the name and badge number of the officer. Currently, some officers record the information but others do not.
Source: ACLU. The continued profiling of [Imran] Khan and of other prominent Indian travelers to America (including former Indian President Abdul Kalam, who is Muslim, and former Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar, who is Hindu) … is part and parcel of the broader epidemic of law enforcement agents treating racial and ethnic minorities unfairly based upon perceived race or religion, rather than based on evidence of wrongdoing. Indeed, all over this country, racial profiling remains a widespread and pervasive problem impacting the lives of millions of people in black, Asian, Latino, South Asian, Arab and Muslim communities.
Source: ACLU. As an Irish American, and someone whose ancestors came to the United States before the Revolutionary War, I am particularly angry with and disappointed in Commissioner Ray Kelly. Has Commissioner Kelly forgotten the prejudice and bigotry that Irish Americans and Catholics have suffered in this country? Why is he subjecting other immigrants and religious minorities to that kind of racial and religious profiling and stigma…? Many of my Muslim student friends and colleagues are almost shut down by fear…. My fellow students describe censoring themselves in classes to avoid saying anything that might be taken as controversial or out of the mainstream on contemporary political issues even where they should be most free — in their academic speech.
