ACLU Sues Jet Blue & TSA For Barring Man Wearing Arabic T-Shirt
The Transportation Security Administration and JetBlue Airways have been sued in federal court for illegally discriminating against an American resident based solely on the Arabic message on his t-shirt and his ethnicity. Last year, the Iraqi-born architect and blogger Raed Jarrar was prohibited from boarding a flight until he agreed to cover his t-shirt. Jarrar first spoke about the incident on Democracy Now last year.Raed Jarrar: "Then I was supposed to take my airplane, my JetBlue airplane from JFK to Oakland in California last Saturday. So I went to the airport in the morning, and I was prevented to go to my airplane by four officers, because I was wearing this t-shirt that says 'We Will Not Be Silent' in both Arabic and English. And I was told by one of the officials that wearing a t-shirt with Arabic script in an airport now is like going to a bank with a t-shirt that reads, 'I am a robber.'"
The American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit against the TSA and jet Blue
-- Democracy Now |