Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi peace activist who lives in the USA , was forced to change his T-Shirt, which bears an Arabic Slogan , because it was found " Offensive ". The incident took place in JFK airport in New York. The activist Jarrar reported in his RaedInTheMiddle blog that he had checked in his bags and was issued a boarding pass. After waiting near the gate to board his jetBlue airlines flight, and after having to gone through a secondary search, two officials approached him. "People are feeling offended because of your t-shirt," Raed reported that one of the men said to him. The writings on the T-Shirt said in both Arabic and English: "We will not be silent". Black crew neck T-shirts with white lettering like the one worn by Raed can be seen on a ParkerStudio.com web page. One employee from jetBlue offered to buy Jarrar a T-shirt to replace the one he was wearing, since the activist had none other after his bags were checked. Refusing at first, he agreed to wear one with "New York" written on it. "I feel very sad that my personal freedom was taken away like this. I grew up under authoritarian governments in the Middle East, and one of the reasons I chose to move to the U.S. was that I don't want an officer to make me change my t-shirt. I will pursue this incident today through a Constitutional rights organization, and I am sure we will meet soon," Raed said.
Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi peace activist who lives in the United States , was forced to change his T-Shirt, which bore an Arabic slogan , because it was found " offensive ". The incident took place in JFK airport in New York. The activist Jarrar reported in his blog RaedInTheMiddle that he had checked-in his bags and was issued a boarding pass. After waiting near the gate to board his jetBlue airlines flight, and after having to gone through a secondary search, two officials approached him. "People are feeling offended because of your t-shirt," Raed reported that one of the men said to him. The writings on the T-Shirt said in both Arabic and English: "We will not be silent". One employee from JetBlue offered to buy Jarrar a T-shirt to replace the one he was wearing, since the activist had none other after his bags were checked. Refusing at first, he agreed to wear one with "New York" written on it. "I feel very sad that my personal freedom was taken away like this. I grew up under authoritarian governments in the Middle East, and one of the reasons I chose to move to the U.S. was that I don't want an officer to make me change my t-shirt. I will pursue this incident today through a constitutional rights organization, and I am sure we will meet soon," Raed said.
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USA
United States
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bears an Arabic Slogan
bore an Arabic slogan
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Offensive
offensive
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RaedInTheMiddle blog
blog RaedInTheMiddle
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checked in
checked-in
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Black crew neck T-shirts with white lettering like the one worn by Raed can be seen on a ParkerStudio.com web page.
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jetBlue
JetBlue
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Constitutional
constitutional