Flying While Muslim

The American Civil Liberties Union defines Racial Profiling as "any police or private security practice in which a person is treated as a suspect because of his or her race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. This occurs when police investigate, stop, frisk, search or use force against a person based on such characteristics instead of evidence of a person's criminal behavior. It often involves the stopping and searching of people of color for traffic violations, known as "DWB" or "driving while black or brown." Although normally associated with African Americans and Latinos, racial profiling and "DWB" have also become shorthand phrases for police stops of Asians, Native Americans, and, increasingly after 9/11, Arabs, Muslims and South Asians.

Racial profiling can also involve pedestrian stops, ‘gang' databases, bicycle stops, use of police attack dogs, suspicion at stores and malls, immigration worksite raids, and in the 2000 presidential election in Florida, harassment on the way to polls, ‘voting while black or brown'. Customs and other airport officials also engage in racial profiling of passengers."¹

The Six Imams are not the only airline passengers who have experienced racial, religious and ethnic profiling by law enforcement while traveling. There are documented situations where transportation providers utilized unlawful racial profiling practices for alleged security purposes. For example:

• The Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings reported that several airlines have removed or denied service to passengers in violation of Federal law due to the passenger's ethnicity, but the airline claimed the person was removed for security reasons.²
• A number of federal courts have recognized that some transportation systems engage in unlawful racial profiling of their passengers in violation of Federal law, such as in Boston, where an American Airlines employee removed a Hispanic man and two Israeli men from a plane because they perceived them to be Arab.³

See the cases below where other individuals faced hardship while flying.

• In New York, a Rabbi was removed from an Airline because he prayed while in his seat before take-off. Shmuel Klein v. American Airlines, No. 06 Civ. 4634 (SDNY) June 13, 2006.
• In 2009, a Muslim family was removed from an AirTran flight after they were removed from the flight after they engaged in a theoretical discussion on where to find the safest seat on an airplane. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/02/family.grounded/index.html

2. See Continental Airlines, Inc. Compliance with 49 U.S.C. §§ 40127, 41702, and 41712 April 2, 2004 (finding that Continental Airlines discriminated against Arab, Muslim and South Asian passengers); Delta Air Lines, Inc., Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings 2004 DOT Av. LEXIS 553 June 21, 2004 (finding that Delta removed passengers from flight because of passengers ethnicity); United Air Lines, Inc. Compliance with 49 U.S.C. §§ 40127, 41310, 41702 and 41712 2003 DOT Av. LEXIS 947 November 19, 2003 (finding that passengers were removed from flights and denied service due to their ethnicity).
3. See Cerqueira v. American Airlines Inc., No. 05-11652-WGY. 2007 WL 1086988, (D.Mass. April 12, 2007). (awarding Hispanic Plaintiff $400,000 for discriminatory treatment by American Airlines).

• http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/06/04/airlines.discrimination/index.html
• http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/gen/jarrar.html
• http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=1228