An Iraqi immigrant and peace activist is suing the federal government and JetBlue Airlines for refusing to allow him on a flight wearing a T-shirt that read in English and Arabic “We Will Not Be Silent.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the suit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of Raed Jarrar, who lives in Washington.
The lawsuit charges that a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employee and JetBlue employees violated Mr. Jarrar’s civil rights under the First and Fifth amendments as well as federal, state and city anti-discrimination laws.
The ACLU says Mr. Jarrar was illegally discriminated against because of the Arabic message on his T-shirt and his ethnicity.
According to the complaint, a TSA employee told Mr. Jarrar it is not permissible to wear an Arabic shirt in the airport and equated it to a “person wearing a T-shirt at a bank stating, ‘I am a robber.’ ”
“It is a dangerous and slippery slope when we allow our government to take away a person’s rights because of his speech or ethnic background,” said Reginald Shuford, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program. “Racial profiling is illegal and ineffective and has no place in a democratic society.”
JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin and TSA spokesman Chris White declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit.
The lawsuit also names 10 unknown “John and Jane Does” who work for the airline, TSA, or other local and state entities that required Mr. Jarrar to cover his shirt with another before he was allowed to board an Aug. 12 flight last year from John F. Kennedy Airport to Oakland, Calif.
The flight occurred just two days after the U.S. went on “red alert” for a possible terrorist attack Aug. 10 when British authorities foiled a terrorist cell planning to use liquid explosives to bomb airplanes.
Mr. Jarrar, an architect and political analyst for American Friends Service Committee and the former Iraq project director for Global Exchange, immigrated legally to the U.S. in 2005 to be with his wife who is an American citizen.
Mr. Jarrar is also a blogger who is often critical of the war in Iraq, which he describes as an “occupation” of his home country by U.S. and British forces.
Mr. Jarrar was given the T-shirt after attending a demonstration in the District hosted by his employer. The shirts were created by a group of artists against the war as a “creative means to encourage dissent against the war in Iraq and the curtailing of civil liberties in the U.S., including racial profiling and detention of Muslim and other immigrants,” according to the group’s Web site, Critical Voice.
“Rather than censor Raed, the TSA official and JetBlue should have assured any uncomfortable passengers that there was absolutely no public safety or security risk,” said Aden Fine, an ACLU senior staff attorney. “We hope this case sends the message to TSA officials and to airlines that they cannot discriminate against passengers because of their race or the content of their speech.”
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