That’s a fine looking fellow, the guy on the left. And a fine looking shirt he’s got on, too. Can you read it? I can’t, which is why I had to read the article about him and his shirt and why it’s illegal at JFK.
The article that informs me that it is now illegal to wear a shirt with Arabic writing on it in American airports.
Yes, TWAT is now The War Against Tees.
Then I once again asked the three of them : “How come you are asking me to change my t-shirt? Isn’t this my constitutional right to wear it? I am ready to change it if you tell me why I should. Do you have an order against Arabic t-shirts? Is there such a law against Arabic script?”
so inspector Harris answered “you can’t wear a t-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It is like wearing a t-shirt that reads “I am a robber” and going to a bank”.
I said “but the message on my t-shirt is not offensive, it just says “we will not be silent“. I got this t-shirt from Washington DC. There are more than a 1000 t-shirts printed with the same slogan, you can google them or email them at wewillnotbesilent@gmail.com . It is printed in many other languages: Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, English, etc.”
Inspector Harris said: “We cant make sure that your t-shirt means we will not be silent, we don’t have a translator. Maybe it means something else”.
I said: “But as you can see, the statement is in both Arabic and English“.
He said “maybe it is not the same message“…
At the point of almost missing his flight, he allows JetBlue to buy him another shirt to wear over the “illegal” one. Apparently, lots of people had called and ratted him out. Remind me to dig out the story of my Arabic necklace and the nice lady at US Customs and Immigration.
I put the t-shirt on and removed the price tag. I told the four people who were involved in the conversation: “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”.
If you want to call Jet Blue and ask about their regulations against Arabic script, you can use the following numbers:
* If calling within the U.S., Bahamas or Puerto Rico: 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583)
* If calling from the Dominican Republic: 1-200-9898
* If calling from outside the U.S. or Dominican Republic: 001-801-365-2525
* Customers who are deaf or heard of hearing (TTY/TDD): 1-800-336-553Raed Jarrar’s blog Raed in the middle
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Please allow me to apologize on the behalf of my country, that such appalling stupidity and ignorance can and does exist here, and usually finds it’s way into positions of petty authority. I would like think in this day and age you would have been treated better, with the respect and rights that you deserve. Sadly, that was not to be. We still have far to go. And as the trend seems to be towards the lowering of the national I.Q., relief does not seem to be at hand.