Ahmed was handcuffed in the Las Vegas airport in November 2004, and, he said, a young black police officer leaned over and said, "Yo man, now you know what it was like to be a black man in the '60s."
.....
"I know I have to be demure and humble when I approach a ticket agent," Ahmed said. "If you show any ounce of negativity or righteousness, they'll deny you, they'll say, 'You're not getting on this flight, I don't like your attitude.'"
When he called a phone line for those with travel problems like his, he said, he got no response.
"I understand the need for security, but they go overboard, they always have to put on this public display," he said.
The full thing here:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/01/news/muslims.php
With regards to travel security procedures in America in 2006, it seems like he's hit the nail on the head: it's overboard, and it's also about putting on public displays. Was his arrest in 2004 due to the unAmerican procedure of blacklisting (by name) that passes for American aviation security? (From the article, it certainly seems to be.)
How many thousands of Ahmeds are there in the US? (There are millions of Ahmeds -- if not tens of millions or even a hundred million or more Ahmeds -- in the world.) Given the idiocy of blacklisting single name persons -- it's been the case before
-- I'd hope that simply a first name or last name coming up on a US government blacklist isn't sufficient grounds for such arrests and other forms of harassment at airports or elsewhere nowadays. Of course hopes and expectations are not one and the same.
