240,000 dollars awarded to man forced to cover Arab T-shirt

NEW YORK (AFP) – An airline passenger forced to cover his T-shirt because it displayed Arabic script has been awarded 240,000 dollars in compensation, campaigners said Monday.

Raed Jarrar received the pay out on Friday from two US Transportation Security Authority officials and from JetBlue Airways following the August 2006 incident at New York's JFK Airport, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced.

"The outcome of this case is a victory for free speech and a blow to the discriminatory practice of racial profiling," said Aden Fine, a lawyer with ACLU.

Jarrar, a US resident, was apprehended as he waited to board a JetBlue flight from New York to Oakland, California, and told to remove his shirt, which had written on it in Arabic: "We will not be silent."

He was told other passengers felt uncomfortable because an Arabic-inscribed T-shirt in an airport was like "wearing a T-shirt at a bank stating, I am a robber,'" the ACLU said.

Jarrar eventually agreed to cover his shirt with another provided by JetBlue. He was allowed aboard but his seat was changed from the front to the back of the aircraft.

Last week, nine Muslims, including three children, were ordered off a domestic US flight after passengers heard what they believed were suspicious remarks about security.

Although the passengers, eight of them US citizens, were cleared by the FBI, they were reportedly still barred from the AirTran flight.

Security has been at a high level in US airports since the September 11, 2001 hijacked airliner attacks against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

However, rights groups and representatives of the Muslim community say the security measures have led to frequent discrimination and harassment.

pez wrote:I agree it's crap, but in the opposite way you do. Arabic writing didnt crash into the world trade center, but rather a handful of crazy men did... most of whom I would assume also spoke english.

Markwes wrote:

pez wrote:I agree it's crap, but in the opposite way you do. Arabic writing didnt crash into the world trade center, but rather a handful of crazy men did... most of whom I would assume also spoke english.

I understand what you're saying, and if we are debating whether the airline/passengers were right in making him cover the shirt, I would completely agree that it was wrong. But how is that worth $240,000? I got kicked out of a restaurant one time because I complained about the lack of items on a pizza. For whatever reason, maybe something to do with being a college student at the time (yeah it was a long time ago) and the place was full of drunk college students, the guy thought I was making fun of him, which I wasn't. Should I have gone to the ACLU and seen if I can get a quarter of a million dollars? Wow, think of all the student loans I could have avoided!

Mort wrote:hehe so if I got on a flight with a tee on that said something like....I love Cocaine! or something like that I wonder if they would make me cover it up!