240,000 dollars awarded to man forced to cover Arab T-shirt
 

NEW YORK (AFP) – An airline passenger forced to cover his T-shirt because it displayed Arabic script has been awarded 240,000 dollars in compensation, campaigners said Monday.

Raed Jarrar received the pay out on Friday from two US Transportation Security Authority officials and from JetBlue Airways following the August 2006 incident at New York's JFK Airport, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced.

"The outcome of this case is a victory for free speech and a blow to the discriminatory practice of racial profiling," said Aden Fine, a lawyer with ACLU.

Jarrar, a US resident, was apprehended as he waited to board a JetBlue flight from New York to Oakland, California, and told to remove his shirt, which had written on it in Arabic: "We will not be silent."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090106...s_090106002219

I cheered when I read it.

ETA: Some people are just plain dumb. Case in point:

I have mixed feelings.

Well...he warned them!

I do too. Because why is it necessary to wear a shirt, in Arabic that many people cannot understand, that says "We will not be silent". Who is "we" and why won't you "be silent"? What is the silence about? That shit just makes people nervous and I'm sorry, call me racist but if I was at an airport and saw someone, whatever they look like Arab or not, wearing this shirt I'd be nervous.

*sigh*

You're racist.

I make it my personal mission to wear shirts that say "I don't wipe my ass when I shit" on every plane I've ever been on. People get very nervous.

The shirt was obviously not meant for you to understand. "We will not be silent" I assume refers to arabs (american and non-american) who won't remain silent, hide or avoid the spotlight so that we (non-arabs) won't feel nervous. He has a right to wear any shirt he wants as long as it doesn't say, "I have a bomb, and I'm going to blow up this airplane!" Unfortunately, the acts of a few extremists has made it okay to discriminate against everyone that speaks arabic. I wish the guy had been awarded more so that people would actually think twice about this issue!

wow....talk about profiling....

How would you know what it said? This guy was looking for attention.

SO ARREST HIM OR KICK HIM OUT OF THE AIRPORT OR WHATEVER!

I don't agree with that.

Just because a man has arabic writing on his shirt does not make him suspicious. The saying was not meant for me or you or anyone who doesn't speak or read arabic. I wouldn't know what it said, and it doesn't matter. He can wear anything he wants on a plane. Would you feel the same if the writing was in yiddish, chinese, japanese, spanish, etc?

Your feelings don't seem so mixed.

At first glance I thought the amount seemed a bit high, but people have won a lot more at trial for mental anguish claims.