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Latest Updates: racial profiling RSS

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  thabet 11:39 pm on March 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: far right (63), It's Not Terrorism When White People Do It, media (408), newspapers (7), racial profiling, racism (201), racists (43), Terrorism (399), the terror threat (68), united kingdom (733)

  British newspapers ‘racially profile’ terror suspects too:

  Remember the “ricin plot” where there was no ricin, where the recipe which Kamel Bourgass had could not have produced ricin and where his plan, to smear it on doorknobs and car door handles wouldn’t have killed anyone as the poison needs to be either injected, ingested or inhaled to work? It was the first real “terror plot” post-9/11 in this country, came two months before the invasion of Iraq (in the context of which it was used by Colin Powell during his now notorious presentation to the UN), and the press coverage was massive in both response and in its hyperbole, the government doing its best to help it along by not bothering to inform anyone until Bourgass’ trial was over that there had been no ricin after all.

  You would then expect a case where ricin actually was found to provoke a similar media response. After all, while ricin is not the most deadly of potential “biological/chemical” warfare poisons, it is still usually deadly when used “properly”, as in the assassination of Georgi Markov, a cold war precursor to the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

  It’s strange then that almost no coverage whatsoever has been given to the case of Ian Davison, although perhaps that name itself somewhat gives the game away.

  I noticed that the Jihad Jane story was on the front of major British news outlets. Yet the arrest of Crusader Christopher wasn’t on the front page (and still isn’t) despite: a. the regional nature of the threat compared to someone tapping from their computer in the US; and b. the fact that ricin and handbooks on making bombs (i.e. ‘terrorist materials’) were actually found in his possession (unlike in the case of a number of high-profile, non-white, terrorists).

  If this doesn’t highlight the racism of the British press, nothing short of headlines screaming “Kill All Pakis” ever will.

   

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  aziz 2:42 pm on March 10, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: cartoons (5), JIhad Jane (2), racial profiling

  Jihad Jane wanted to murder another Swedish cartoonist for insulting Islam. Hopefully her arrest will finally murder racial profiling as a valid tactic for keeping us safe from terrorism instead.

   
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  johnpi 12:33 am on January 22, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Inhofe, Oklahoma (3), profiling (10), racial profiling, religious profiling (13), Republicans (61), right-wing morons (71)

  US Senator James Inhofe: ‘I believe in racial and ethnic profiling’ because ‘all terrorists are Muslims or Middle Easterners.’

  This from the senator of the state that suffered the second-largest terrorist attack in US history – at the hands of Timothy McVeigh.

   
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  aziz 3:22 pm on January 8, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: America (36), arabs (23), muslims (347), racial profiling, stereotypes (5)

  An excellent diary at dkos by an Arab American (non muslim) about collective blame.

   
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  johnpi 10:32 am on January 3, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: civil liberties (37), civil rights (42), flying while muslim (24), IRA (3), no fly list (3), profiling (10), racial profiling, religious profiling (13), Terrorism (399), Tunku Varadarajan

  ‘My daughter’s on the no-fly list’ writes Chris Kelly. She’s 12 years old.

  So I should hate the No Fly List. Besides the personal inconvenience, it runs counter to a solid third of the Bill of Rights. But I’m conflicted. Because I have a pretty good idea why my daughter’s on the list. It’s because she has the same name as this guy:

  

  In 1993 this IRA thug walked into a fish shop in Belfast with a bomb that went off prematurely (of course) injuring 57 people, including a 79-year-old woman and two two-year-old boys. It also killed ten people, including a thirteen-year-old girl named Leanne Baird, and her little sister, Michelle, seven. Just like Jesus would have wanted.

  But I have some disappointing news for Mike Gallagher [radio host who recently said all people with the following names should get profiled]: The killer’s name isn’t Abdul or Ahmed or Mohammed. It’s Sean Kelly.

  Which is why America has to wake up, get serious about terrorism, and racially profile all Irish Catholics. Because you never know where they’ll strike next with their religion of hate. Wait, that can’t be right.

  Kelly also coins a new term: “Varadarajan Stoicism” – as in Tunku Varadarajan, who recently attempted to popularize the phrase “going Muslim.”

   
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  johnpi 11:40 pm on December 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: civil liberties (37), civil rights (42), deportation (5), discrimination (27), discrimination against Muslims (14), immigrant persecution (12), immigration (51), Muslim persecution (19), persecution (17), profiling (10), racial profiling, religious discrimination (14), religious persecution (19), religious profiling (13), US immigration (11), US Persecution of Muslims (2)

  A US appeals court has ruled that Muslims and Arab non-citizens have no right “to be free of selective enforcement of the immigration laws based on national origin, race, or religion….”

  The plaintiffs initiated the lawsuit in 2002 on behalf of Arab and Muslim aliens who were held on immigration violations following the Sept. 11 terror attacks and subjected to abuse, mistreatment and lengthy detentions.

  The abuse included beatings, strip searches and sleep deprivation. The allegations have been substantiated by two reports by the Office of the Inspector General.

  Five of the men settled with the government in November. A sixth plaintiff withdrew his claims several years ago.

  Rachel Meeropol of the Center for Constitutional Rights served as lead counsel for the plaintiffs. She called Friday’s ruling a “mixed bag.”

  “By dismissing [the equal protection] claim, the circuit has endorsed using religion and ethnicity as a proxy for suspicion of terrorist activity. That’s the part of the decision we’re disappointed in,” Meeropol said.

  Case ruling here.

  (via)

   
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  bingregory 4:41 am on December 17, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: flying while muslim (24), Hasan Elahi, performance art, racial profiling, Tracking Transience

  Rutgers University professor Hasan Elahi maintains a website tracking his every movement, so the government doesn’t have to. Tracking Transience has been up since 2007, when he explained the idea of pre-emptive profiling to Wired Magazine:

  “I’ve discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away,” he says, grinning as he sips his venti Black Eye. Elahi relishes upending the received wisdom about surveillance. The government monitors your movements, but it gets things wrong. You can monitor yourself much more accurately. Plus, no ambitious agent is going to score a big intelligence triumph by snooping into your movements when there’s a Web page broadcasting the Big Mac you ate four minutes ago in Boise, Idaho. “It’s economics,” he says. “I flood the market.”

   
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  aziz 12:17 pm on December 4, 2009 | 19 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: flying while muslim (24), jafi (18), racial profiling

  yet another Scary Muslim Email, this time supposedly about a “dry run” hijacking on Air Tran Flight 297. It’s so bad its good.

  I particularly loved the way the author simply invents nonsensical Islamic jurisprudence about proper behavior in a strip club. It lends the email a touch of the surreal. The commenters at snopes.com are pretty merciless in their mockery:

  If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman via mirror with his back to her. (don’t ask me….I don’t make the rules, but I’ve studied).

  This is correct. Also, a Muslim man may:
  * Steal things, as long as the person he is stealing from won't notice for at least 3 days
  * Drink alcohol, as long as it is through a curly straw
  * Eat pork, as long as it has mustard and is on wholegrain bread

  And the discussion thread at Balloon Juice is a must-read, where they note with glee the rightwing comment that "There's far too much detail here for this to be a fabrication.”

   
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  johnpi 7:49 am on October 25, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Boyd (7), civil liberties (37), civil rights (42), North Carolina (6), patriot act (2), profiling (10), racial profiling, religious profiling (13)

  Law enforcement officials hold “town hall” style meeting for North Carolina Muslim community where Daniel Patrick Boyd and seven others were indicted on terrorism charges.

  The event brought together federal, state and local law enforcement agents, as well as lawyers and public officials, in an exercise aimed at restoring trust between the two communities.

  More than 100 Muslims from across the Triangle attended the gathering, sponsored by the Muslim American Society. Among them were the wife, daughter and son of Daniel Boyd, who was indicted July 27 on federal charges that he and seven others conspired to commit terrorist acts. Boyd is in a Virginia prison awaiting trial.
  ….

  Nawar Shora, a Washington, D.C., lawyer with the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, said Muslims should volunteer to sit on community boards and task forces to ensure that their concerns are addressed.

  “We need to take charge of our own destiny,” said Shora. “We need to learn from Jews and African-Americans. We are not the first community to be pigeonholed and labeled.”

   
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  johnpi 12:35 pm on October 23, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: America (36), racial profiling, religious profiling (13), Terrorism (399), usa (16)

  LAPD’s iWatch terrorism ad: Important or incredibly creepy?

  The iWatch program encourages people to report suspicious activity that may be terrorism-related to the police. The American Civil Liberties Union has expressed concern that iWatch will lead to “racial or religious profiling.”

  See the ad here.

  Have you monitored your neighbors today?

   
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  johnpi 6:24 am on October 19, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: civil liberties (37), civil rights (42), New York City (7), profiling (10), racial profiling, religious profiling (13)

  Another story about the protest last week in New York City against racial and religious profiling of Muslim-majority immigrant communities.

  I previously linked to a New York Daily News story about the protest, but the reporter here talked to different people and perhaps more people, so I’m linking it too.

  Naiz Khan, the Flushing man who was initially detained and released by the FBI several weeks ago in connection with the current terror investigation, also spoke up, though he declined to discuss the specifics of his own case.

  Khan said several rows were empty at his mosque because Muslims are afraid to come out to worship.

  “My life has so been affected by this,” he said, noting he is currently looking for work. “The people who hired me before, if they heard about me, they will not hire me again.”

  Imam Ayub Abdul Baki of the Tahuid Center for Islamic Development in Jamaica, emphasized that the Muslim community opposes terrorism.

  “We stand against all forms of terrorism,” he said, but warned against racial profiling. “These people should not be continually victimized.”

   
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  johnpi 5:59 pm on October 10, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: New York City (7), profiling (10), racial profiling, religious profiling (13), Zazi (6)

  New York Muslims say profiling has increased since Zazi arrest, hold demonstration.

  Recent terror raids in Queens have led to a spike in fear and racial profiling, Muslim advocates charge.

  About 40 people rallied outside the Flushing Public Library yesterday to draw attention to what they called an uptick in targeted policing.

  The rally was in response to raids last month linked to a suspected bomb plot. Najibullah Zazi, who authorities say was trained at an al Qaeda terror camp, was charged in the plot. Zazi, 24, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to detonate explosives.
  ….

  Yesha Mahmooda, an organizer with the South Asian immigrant rights group Desis Rising Up and Moving, said hundreds of community members have contacted her to report police profiling in recent weeks.

  “They are very scared they are being surveilled,” she said.

  Organizers say Muslims in New York haven’t been this scared since the months after 9/11, when some were subject to blatant discrimination across the country.

   
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  johnpi 5:47 pm on August 16, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: discrimination (27), discrimination against Muslims (14), India (174), racial profiling, religious profiling (13), white privilege (5)

  ‘You’re too white to be an Indian. Your passport must be fake.’

  

  Neil Nitin Mukesh – Too light to be trusted.

  Other Bollywood stars share horror stories of trying to travel in the US after Shah Rukh Khan incident.

  Fellow Bollywood stars sprang to Khan’s defence at the weekend and told of their experiences at the hands of U.S. immigration officials.

  Irrfan Khan, who played the police inspector in last year’s hit film Slumdog Millionaire, said that U.S. screening staff seemed “threatened by any Muslim passport.”

  “I can understand America’s need for caution after 9/11 but they also need to be a little more thoughtful about their methods,” he said, adding he had been detained three times for questioning in various parts of the world.

  Neil Nitin Mukesh said he had been detained in New York by an officer who appeared to believe he was too fair-skinned to be Indian and may have a false passport.

  Shahrukh Khan’s troubles were “yet another example of American paranoia post-9/11″, director Kabir Khan said. “It saddens me to say this but I don’t think the U.S. will ever be cured of Islamophobia.”

  Meanwhile, Obama is being burned in effigy in the city of Allahabad over the Khan flap, while the US Ambassador to India reassures that “Khan is a ‘global icon’ who was a welcome guest in the United States.”

   
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  johnpi 9:33 am on August 15, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Bollywood (15), discrimination (27), discrimination against Muslims (14), India (174), racial profiling, religious discrimination (14), religious profiling (13), Shah Rukh Khan

  Muslim Bollywood star profiled, held in U.S. airport – fans outraged.

  Indian Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan said he felt angry and humiliated after he was detained and questioned at a U.S. airport, sparking an uproar in India among his fans.

  Khan, 43, one of India’s best known actors, was enroute to Chicago for a parade to mark the Indian independence day on Saturday when he was pulled aside at Newark airport Friday, he said.

  “I was really hassled perhaps because of my name being Khan. These guys just wouldn’t let me through,” he said in a text message to reporters in India.

  After a couple of hours’ interrogation, he was allowed to make a call, he said, and he got in touch with the Indian consulate who vouched for him and secured his release.

  “Absolutely uncalled for, I think. I felt angry and humiliated,” said Khan, who had just finished a month-long shoot in the United States for his upcoming film “My Name is Khan,” which is about a Muslim man’s experience with racial profiling.

   
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  thabet 7:15 am on June 7, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Crime (54), ethnic minorities (7), eu (27), europe (82), human rights (381), politics (766), racial profiling, racism (201), rights (19), social policy (4), state (101), Terrorism (399)

  A new report by the Open Society Institute finds ‘[p]ervasive use of ethnic and religious stereotypes by law enforcement across Europe’ and goes onto criticise this as harmful to Europe’s ability to combat crime and terrorism.

  The report seems to focus on details of widespread profiling in France, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands.

  (Via Martijn de Koning, who discusses the report in more detail.)

   
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  johnpi 5:38 am on April 29, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Arabic culture (3), arabs (23), Brunei (3), colonialism (29), halal tourism (3), indonesia (54), islamophobia (228), Malaysia (99), Muslim persecution (19), racial profiling, tourism (6)

  Arab investors to build ‘Arab cities’ in Malaysia.

  Malacca chief minister Mohamad Ali Rustam reportedly said the project, due for completion by 2012, will attract more Middle Eastern tourists and give locals a chance to experience Arabic culture.

  Arab tourists spend on average 10 times more than other tourists, according to recent reports on Malaysian tourism that showed an increasing number of Muslim Middle Eastern tourists are seeking “halal tourism” in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei while avoiding the U.S. and Europe because of post Sept. 11, 2001 stereotyping and racial profiling.

   
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  johnpi 5:42 am on April 28, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: immigrant persecution (12), immigrants (16), racial profiling, US immigration (11)

  In its zeal to crack down on illegal immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining and deporting American citizens.

   
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  johnpi 11:33 am on January 21, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: domestic violence (35), Honor Killings (13), racial profiling, racism (201)

  An instance of using a domestic violence accusation to persecute an Arab man, or an honor killing averted, or something else?

  Bay County Assistant Prosecutor Richard I. Dresser alleges Fawaz M. Ghaith threatened to kill 18-year-old Hanan Ghaith [his daughter], her mother and Hanan’s grandparents in a Sept. 2, 2008, phone call to the grandparents’ home in Gibson Township.

  Ghaith’s lawyers claim police targeted the Jordanian-American truck driver due to his Middle Eastern descent.

  “If Fawaz’s name wasn’t Fawaz – if Fawaz’s name was Jeff, and we had this same factual situation – would we be here in this situation?” Jeffrey M. Day, one of two lawyers representing Ghaith, asked jurors in his opening statement.
  ….

  Day said Hanan Ghaith “has much to gain” if a jury convicts her father. Hanan wants to remain in the U.S., and Day added “it’s going to be a lot easier with her dad out of the way, and that’s going to be the result – perhaps – of this trial.”

   
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  thabet 1:40 am on August 3, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: moral philosophy, racial profiling, social (46)

  Money for institutionalised racism?