Come on now, if this isn't a blatant attempt to troll or derail the thread, I don't know what is. In that "other" thread, mostly everyone agreed that people have rights to do whatever the hell they want. The PM and this Arab dude can do whatever they want. Hell you can wear a swastika and it's not against any laws, at least in America. You, however are not give a free pass from criticism. Therefore offended people can say what they want as well as in the case of the protestors in Asia. But in the cause of the airport, we're not talking about a few protestors objecting to the shirt, which there are. We're talking about enforcement taking this guy denying him his rights for not breaking any laws. There's a huge difference when we cross the line on people's rights in defense of our perceived own. I hope this ends this response.
The guy's a moron. There's something called common sense. Obviously this guy has none. Either that, or he was hoping to incite a situation like this for publicity.
During the Vietnam years, I wore numerous shirts, jackets, buttons... you name it, that protested the war. My girlfriends frequently made me hand-sewn clothes, bless 'em, although you could buy the stuff easy enough. I can understand the need to make a political statement. The guy could have used some common sense, however. Riding on an airliner now is just a freakin' pain, and people can get freaked out fairly easily, including the crew. I would have covered it up until I got to the destination. Keep D&D Civil.
I can't read Arabic, can you? And I'm not saying it was right to harass the guy. I just wouldn't have made the gesture the guy made in that situation. Keep D&D Civil.
Two questions then: 1) What can words (particularly those you cannot read) on a t-shirt do to threaten your safety? 2) What about something in german or spanish? Having just gotten back from a two and a half week trip to Europe, it is painfully obvious that people are totally out of touch with the "reality" of security in airports. Thank goodness I wasn't asked to change because my t-shirt said "Evil Cerebral" in English in the Amsterdam airport. As a further aside, this is a perfectly analogous to "**** the draft", yet in this case you choose to pick on the arab guy. Sad really.
Common sense. No word in any language on a T-shirt worn by a passenger can create any security issue of a plane. Even if it is as disgusting as Mr. Brightside suggested, or something like "I am a human bomber", or "I received order to blow this plane off 10 minutes after it takes off", what's the real harm of words on a T-shirt? It was bad, because some passengers reported it when they saw Arabic characters on a T-shirt worn by a Mid-Eastern. It was even worse that security staff encouraged such paranoia caused by prejuice or hatred.
I'm not picking on anyone, dude. I'm giving my opinion of what I would have done had it been me. I can't make out whatever else you're saying. Keep D&D Civil.
Sorry, I should not have used the word "you" - it was meant as a "we" or even "them" - if you prefer. I apologize if the comment was confusing: It's really simple - how does an arabic phrase on a t-shirt cause a security concern? Better yet - how does having a TSA guy worry about clothing help airport security keep bombers off planes? I, like you Deckard, am not surprised at this action. But I'm not about to make excuses for it either. The "**** the draft" comment is an obvious reference to a fellow vietnam war protestor, like yourself. While offensive to some people, it was his right to express himself - just like this guy.
Most people wouldn't a Tshirt like that, or anything politically imflammatory at an airport for that matter. I personally wouldn't either. But that's not the point. The point is what happened to him by authorities. He had to have known he would get dirty looks or stares by wearing it, and the shirt is from a political group. But he never would have thought they would go that far, because his 1st amendment rights are clear regardless of his skin color or language. I believe he pushed the line, but the authorities crossed it.
so now we should be listening to osama bin laden??? funny how you're so inclined to listen to this man and take his advice. that should tell you where you're priorities are....
I have no problem with so-called "profiling" in the airport. You can check everyone looks like Arabians, and pass by every white man with tie and shirt. After all, the fact is most suspects, at this point, are in that group. However, you can't cross the line. If you think the man with arabic language on the T-shirt poses a threat, as complained by some other passengers, you can check him extremely careful, you can search your databse again and again for his criminal record, you can talk to him to see if he is nervous. But you can not let him take off his shirt, which poses NO threat to the security of airline simply by the common sense. There is nothing worthy a debate for this incident. The staff of airport just did something wrong and stupid. But I consider it a warning sign that how far the government and its fear advertisement can hurt this country.
I thought Deckard was on the right track with one of his earlier posts that mirrors mine, but he sort of stopped right there. As I stated, the problem is not so much about suppresion of free speech, much less racial discrimination, it's about the security of the flight. I don't understand why people keep linking a controverial and potentially inflammatory message-carrying T-shirt to a bomb. That's red herring. Maybe you should ask yourself what you are going to do if you are the captain of the flight or the airport security chief in this situation. Does it ever occur to you what if there is a red blooded gung ho staunch warmongering dude on the same plane as the defiant T-shirt guy, the likelihood of a verbal scrimmage or even possible physical confrotation broken out between the two? Remember what bigtexxx said he would do if he saw Arab men congregating around a lavatory on a plane? In a perfect world, you'd be confident everyone be civil and rational when they exchange ideas and ideals -- but then again in a perfect world there would be no war so the guy would not have to wear that T-shirt, in a real world like the one we have now, however, one can not fault the crew/security taking extra precautions against the worst possible scenario. Free speech yes, but not on an airplane, at least not now. We are not talking about enduring an oppression with no end in sight when you are in the air, c'mon. That's my POV.
Why not on an airplane? The Bill of Rights is a pretty big deal. You can't just nullify it because you're 10,000 feet off the ground. That people are suggesting that's worth considering is scary. Besides the fact that it is our 432nd baby-step toward totalitarianism, it has no legal basis and just for the sake of the rule of law, it should not be tolerated. As for possible passenger confrontation, that can happen between any 2 people in any airplane. The staff on any plane should be (and are, I think) sufficient to quell any disturbance of that nature.
This makes no sense. If free speech is limited, it's not free speech. Kind of like those idiotic "free speech zones" everyone (including you, wnes, IIRC) has labeled atrociously anti-american. Seriously, if your such a fearful paranoid loser that someone's t-shirt scares you, how in the hell did you ever find the courage to buy the damn ticket to begin with?
So where do you want to draw the line? Is the next step being no foreign language spoken in airport becasue the security guys don't understand it, you guys maybe are talking about bombing a plane? You THINK you can draw that line well by proposing a limited free-speech, but you can't. Obviously most people (at least in this forum) think they are going too far by banning a T-shirt without any real threat to the security.
