‘Thanks Al Qaeda!’ Largest nudist organization in North America endorses new airport scanners.
Latest Updates: traveling Muslims RSS
-
johnpi
-
johnpi
The mother of one of the five young men arrested in Pakistan told CNN Thursday that her son was in that country to get married, not to plot terror attacks as Pakistani police have alleged.
….In an interview with CNN, Subira Farouk said her son, Umar, was one of the young men detained in the case. She said her husband also was arrested, which would bring to six the number of people in custody. Police confirmed they have six people in custody, not five, as was originally reported.
Farouk said her son would never plot a terror attack. She described him as a business student at George Mason University in suburban Washington.
Farouk said she and her husband went to Pakistan to arrange a marriage for their son, who surprised her by traveling from the United States.
One significant result of the decline of Pakistan’s reputation in America is that there is now an elevated risk to anyone traveling to Pakistan of getting caught up in something like this, over and above the usual harassment and hyper-vigilance that now applies to Muslims during travel.
-
johnpi
Disney exec, ‘Please fix this’: Decline in foreign visitors to the US has cost the country about a quarter of a million jobs.
While visitation to the U.S. doesn’t feel like an export business, in essence, it is. We export the promise our destinations offer as brands, or a means of encouraging people to come to our country, whether they wish to visit Disneyland, see our nation’s capital, or attend one of our universities.
….Since 2001, foreign visitor arrivals have dropped off substantially. That’s due both to the fact that the very process of visiting the U.S. makes many overseas visitors feel unwelcome by the time they get here and because competition from foreign travel destinations has, in the meantime, increased significantly.
-
johnpi
400,000 on FBI watch list – 1,600 new names nominated every day…
Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and complexity of the nation’s terrorist watch list, documenting a daily flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list.
During a 12-month period ended in March this year, for example, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list because they presented a “reasonable suspicion,” according to data provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI in September and made public last week.
FBI officials cautioned that each nomination “does not necessarily represent a new individual, but may instead involve an alias or name variant for a previously watchlisted person.”
The ever-churning list is said to contain more than 400,000 unique names and over 1 million entries. The committee was told that over that same period, officials asked each day that 600 names be removed and 4,800 records be modified. Fewer than 5 percent of the people on the list are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Nine percent of those on the terrorism list, the FBI said, are also on the government’s “no fly” list.
-
johnpi
In spite of President Obama’s lobbying efforts, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) may have chosen to reject hosting the 2016 summer olympic games in Chicago due to the post-9/11 visa tourist policies established by his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Michael Froomkin, Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, is convinced that the “the same stupid anti-visitor policy that is destroying American higher education” also sunk Chicago’s Olympic bid. Chicago was eliminated during the first round and received the fewest votes.
A New York Times article points out:
In the official question-and-answer session following the Chicago presentation, Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, asked the toughest question. He wondered how smooth it would be for foreigners to enter the United States for the Games because doing so can sometimes, he said, be “a rather harrowing experience.”
-
johnpi
Homeland Security formalizes laptop seizure rules – sort of.
For months it’s been the policy (written or unwritten, no one is sure), that the Department of Homeland Security can do pretty much whatever it wants with your laptop, cell phone, or other electronic gadgets when you, a U.S. citizen, return to the country from overseas.
….Consumer rights groups haven’t exactly been thrilled with all the arbitrary searches and seizures, and for months they’ve been pressing for DHS to formalize and clarify the rules on what it can do. At last, the department has.
Sort of.
There’s some good news in the new rules: Customs finally recognizes that holding on to a laptop for a couple of years can greatly inconvenience the life of anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves under suspicion, and is relaxing — a little — the rules about what it will do during a laptop seizure.
The big change is that it states owners should normally be present during any laptop search and that equipment should be returned quickly. But, as Ars Technica notes, there are numerous and vague exceptions to all of this, with exemptions granted for national security issues (why else would they search the laptop in the first place?) and for whatever “circumstances of the matter” the agency feels appropriate.
There are some basic rules for how long they can keep your laptop now, too, with Customs having up to 30 days to hold on to it, depending on which agency actually takes it. And as Ars also notes, “the standards for seizure remain very low.”
-
johnpi
Comments of a young Egyptian Muslim man, Ahmed Aly, on trying to get a visa to fly to the US:
Last week I called the American Embassy in Cairo requesting an interview to apply for the US visa. I think it’s funny that a young Muslim would apply for the U.S. visa. Especially a young Muslim from the Middle East. Why is it “funny”? – Simply because of this rule: young Muslims are NOT welcome in USA.
I requested that interview, and I sent email to the American embassy telling that I know that they won’t issue me the visa, but I am applying only because some of my American friends are insisting on my visit in the States. Most of them even offered to send me $131 visa fee via Western Union!
I am applying for the U.S. visa for the third time to prove to my American friends that it’s kinda impossible for a young Muslim to obtain a U.S. visa. And also to stop the “headache” my friends cause me. Visiting the United States of America is a lost case for me!
-
johnpi
Muslim Advocates, a Muslim civil rights advocacy group founded by the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML) has released a report, Unreasonable Intrusions: Investigating the Politics, Faith & Finances of Americans Returning Home, that details complaints of US Muslims nationwide about abuses they have experienced upon re-entering the country at the hands of Customs and Border Patrol. The report also provides the organization’s policy recommendations for how to maintain border security while protecting US citizen’s rights.
Below are some reported questions citizens who are Muslims have been asked upon attempting to re-enter the US. This may also be a good place to relink Abdul Malik Mujahid’s 32 travel tips for Muslims.
-
johnpi
Travel tips for Muslims: We’re starting to see new lists of travel tips for Muslims in the wake of the AirTran nine incident. Br. Abdul Malik Mujahid seems to have put together the most definitive, with 32 tips.
Here are a few samples:
What will you be doing?
This is another question immigration officials may ask. Avoid being vague and give a very precise answer. To do this, you need to prepare before you get to the immigration counter. If you are planning to visit a relative or friend, for example, call them before you travel and confirm with them your plans to visit, along with the dates you will be there. That way, if officers want to call your relative or friend to double check your story, there will be no inconsistencies.
Avoid being too courteous
Being too courteous while being Muslim may actually get you kicked off a flight. That is exactly what happened to some young Muslims who were traveling from Chicago to New York to catch a flight for their trip to Makkah. During a stopover in Philadelphia, a group of women boarded and wanted to sit together. These nice Muslim kids offered to switch their seats with them, but when they got up to do this, the pilot who profiled them because of their religion (they had white, brown and black skin colors) kicked them off the plane. Other passengers tried to explain to the pilot that they were trying to be courteous. Apparently, the pilot was afraid of what these Muslims were planning to do. The nice young people had to drive to New York to catch their flight to Makkah.
So save your courtesy for the right time and right location.
Do NOT try to be funny if you fit the profile
Jokes about bombs are taken seriously even if you do not fit the profile. However, if you fit the profile, and you’re trying to lighten up the atmosphere, the airport, bus or train station are the wrong places to be funny. In fact, wisecracks about any topics are a wrong idea. If you are stopped in your car for speeding or some other traffic infringement, do not joke with the officer about any topics either. Just wait patiently until comedians eventually start making jokes about profiling in America.