BBC’s take on the craziness … Arabic t-shirt sparks airport row.
Better yet, read about it (and tons of other important news and information about the Middle East) straight from the horse’s mouth … er, hoof? … at Raed Jarrar’s blog.
Raed really gets to the heart of the matter when he says:
It sucks to be an Arab/Muslim living in the US these days. When you go to the middle east, you are a US tax-payer destroying people’s houses with your money, and when you come back to the US, you are a suspected terrorist and plane hijacker.
Limiting the term of suckage to “these days” is diplomatic beyond description … I can’t imagine there’s been a period in my lifetime when it hasn’t sucked to be an Arab—Muslim or otherwise—in this country. Christ, could it really be time for an “Arabs are people too” t-shirt?
There’s many things I wish would come of this but probably the best we could hope for is some backpeddeling from the PR department. I would have loved to stand next to this man wearing my T-shirt that reads “Security Forces” in both english and arabic. I’d dare them to make us change our T-shirt’s while I waved my military ID in there faces.