Home

I admit, I was directed to this by a friend, I did not just come across it. In front of a moderately sized home, well-looked after with a nice garden and two cars in the driveway, there is something written on the sidewalk facing the house. In very faded, hardly visible blue spray paint are the words, “GO HOME”. My friend, who babysits next door, tells me that a Persian family with two young children lives there. My friend does not know exactly when the words were written, but that it was sometime after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This seems to be a daily reminder of who is and who is not considered to be “home” in America.

"Empire"

A man approaches me as I sit on a bench on the National Mall and asks me if I will take a picture of him. He is nicely dressed in a well-fitting grey suit, and is shaven. He appears to be of Middle Eastern or Eastern European descent, and has a hint of an accent. He stands firmly in front of the Capitol Building and raises a sign on white cardboard with black lettering over his head. The sign says simply, “EMPIRE”. He asks me to make sure that the whole building and his whole body are in the photograph. I take the picture with the digital camera and then show it to him. He smiles, thanks me, and tells me to have a good day. I look around and see a blond woman in a pale blue windbreaker and jeans with a young child in a stroller stopped and staring at our interaction. When she sees me look at her she looks away.

Airport Posturing

Three men in their early twenties are standing near the airline gate with a couple of bags each. They speak in hushed voices, but not so quietly that the people directly around can not hear. Nodding his head at a Middle Eastern man who is browsing the newspaper stand nearby, one says,
“This fella here better not be on our flight, all I’m saying”. The others laugh.
“Aw, you see that? In his pocket, that’s looking like a pipe bomb to me,” says another. The young man looks around, smiling, to other passengers sitting nearby, making eye contact with another young man who gives him a half-smile and then looks away.
A middle-aged woman passing at the time looks hears and looks from the young men to the man they are discussing, and her eyes go to the pocket in question. She continues walking.
One of the young men begins to take a confrontational body posture. He puffs out his chest, flexes his arms and takes a step with one leg toward the man.

Sitting Accross From the Islamic Center

What does a terrorist look like? Drive along Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington DC and at some point you'll pass the Islamic Center of Washington DC. I believe that the average American (although what is average?) would point out an Islamic Cleric as an example of a terrorist. The terrorist who attack this country happen to be Islamic Fundamentalists. Sitting across from the Center, I'm watching cab driver after cab driver arrive and leave for daily prayers. This is a busy center. The Center is located on the East side of Mass Ave. I see a group of tourists on walking "Embassy Row" tour. They are all wearing red jackets and being led by a woman holding a folded umbrella above her head. They are walking on the same side of the street as the Center. They reach the intersection of Belmont Road NW and Mass Ave. They Cross at the intersection to my side of the street, the West side of the street (so ironic that it’s the West side.) The group walks past me. The kids look to be about 8th grade. Their behavior is typical of 8th graders. The tour guide, probably one of their teachers, says nothing about the Center. One of the Students asks, "What's that place across the Street?" The guide replies, "I don't know. It looks like an Iraqi church." I have a hard time blending in while controlling my reaction to this comment. The group continues up the road toward the Naval Observatory. A trailing pair of girls I overheard saying, "they look like terrorists." I can't help but thinking that the cab drivers that come and go from this place are in their own world. They probably come here to pray once if not multiple times a day while ferrying passengers around that want to know nothing about them or have anything to do with them. ignorance

Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix, AZ

Running late again on my way from Sedona to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, I turn in my Bat Mobile and catch the shuttle to Terminal 4. Right off the bat I'm flooded with the effects of Terrorism in this country. Bomb/drug dogs (thank god I don't have any pot, but that is also like, "duh") patrol each entrance of the terminal. Each baggage/ticket desk had its own luggage bomb screening device.

Baltimore had none of this. I immediately get to thinking, "Where in Gods name are they getting the money for this shit?" Ah yes, of course. The reduced NYC Homeland Security funding which was spread out amongst other smaller yet still nervous cities around America like Phoenix. I'm so glad that Phoenix has the most state of the art equipment and most highly trained and zealous TSA employees. That is surely benefiting this country. American West Airlines recently merged with US Airways, but they don't bother to tell passengers that you can check-in at either desk. I can see I'm not the only person confused about this. Inside the terminal are more bag screening devices. Man those things look expensive. I get to the ticket kiosk and after trying every which way of locating my reservation without success, I'm sent to a desk agent.

My flight leaves in one hour. The desk agent informs me that the Baltimore agent that routed me through Las Vegas has deleted my return reservation. I pull out my computer print-out to prove that I was actually booked on the flight. She informs me after furious typing that my flight, which I booked a first class ticket on originally, has been overbooked by 10 people. I immediately go into meltdown mode. I'm shouting and screaming because I want to get the hell out of this state. Screw America West. She calls over her supervisor, who calms me down. They offer me a one way first class voucher for future travel, and somehow guarantee me a seat on the plane that leaves in less than 30 minutes nearly a mile away through security. I had a lot of time to observe people while the agents figured out how to get me home. They're were people standing next to me that must have been from some Borough of New York City. They had arrived just under an hour before their plane took off, but the agent informed them that all checked bags must be checked at least an hour before departure. The alpha male of the traveling family lost it worse than I had. The ticket agent explained that the baggage policy was a Sky Harbor security policy. He went on ranting that they don't have this rule at Newark, JFK or LaGuardia. I chimed in and said there was no such thing at Baltimore either. "Do we look like terrorists?" the man shouted. His wife jabbed him in the rib cage "I can't answer that," the ticket woman said flatly. "Good luck getting on the plane now buddy," I thought to myself. My agent gave me a piece of paper and said that I should give this to the gate agent. I ran down the corridor, up the escalator, where I met a line of passengers. They were at least a quarter of a mile from the entrance to the security line.

I walked to the security point and waltzed through the first class line, which allowed me to make my flight. They didn't that I had been demoted from First to Coach. The piece of paper in my hand didn't indicate the class. I scanned the line, which wasn't moving, and quickly picked out 34 American flags on clothing. The line was being held up because whoever the TSA director for Sky Harbor Airport was, had decided that all of the passengers were to receive full searches. So different from the outbound flight from Baltimore. An elderly gentleman and a woman scrutinized the contents of my bag on the x-ray screen for at least 5 minutes. I look at my watch. 20 Minutes till departure. They decide that my bag needs a thorough hand search. The man finds a bottle of lotion and hair clay, which passed the Baltimore exam unnoticed. He lectures me about the newly enforced liquid restrictions like I've been living under a rock for the past 20 years. "I don't care, throw them out," I hurriedly say to him. He slowly repacks my bag and I take off in a sprint to what I thought was my gate. WRONG. My gate is a whole 3/10 of a mile away at least. I hear the final boarding call for my flight. I reach the gate and hand the agent my piece of paper. He glares at me and says, "Where did you get this?" I tell him that I got it downstairs and he says, "Fuck." He yells to the woman collecting tickets who comes over to refute my piece of paper. They are both overweight and in the midst of some sort of patriotic pin competition. Maybe they're married. I learn that they have sent another agent onto the plane to pull a passenger off so that I can have his seat. I have to wonder if they did this intentionally or not: The man they pulled off the plane was dressed typical Islamic Cleric garb. I mean he looked like Bin-Laden. I thought back to the local Sedona bar, but quickly turned my attention to the thought that he might have left something deadly on the plane. How would we know until it was too late? The flight was bumpy and cramped, but it landed in Baltimore. I was happy to be back to the East Coast.

The Vortex

God please teleport me out of this place or all the people here. Sedona is beautiful; I just have a low tolerance for non-coastal Americans. They come to Sedona for the Spiritual Vortex believed to be present as a result of the rock formations. What are these people smoking? And can I get some? Other than heavy Americans walking around clad in patriotic clothing (some of my own non-nuclear family members were guilty of this) people seemed to have an overwhelming sense of spiritual being in this place. All the non-rental cars (except Fox cars, which I suspect were far and few) were maneuvering around town plastered with patriotic bumper and magnetic stickers (my aunt's van that she drove up from Huston, TX was an astounding example). I had difficulty distinguishing tourists from locals, but I suspected most were from out of town as Sedona is a tourist destination. I got multiple tastes of the one local bar Sedona had to offer. My bro and I cruised in the Bat Mobile to The Vortex, the only and best place for Sedona nightlife. The first night we were there it was painfully obvious that we were not locals. In fact I recognized and drank with three employees of the Sedona Hyatt. Great people, all our age and so nice, but maybe it was because I was buying the rounds. I found it interesting that the band performing that night would make regular shout-outs to American troops abroad between sets. They ended the night with, "Were gonna find the Bin-Laden son-of-a-bitch, DEAD or ALIVE!" I was drunkenly thinking to myself, "Did they really just say that? Because it's so perfect for this project." I wrote myself a cocktail napkin reminder note. This act prompted curiosity from our newfound local friends, to which I explained this project while my brother silently engaged in text-message-sex with his boyfriend from Connecticut. The three drunken locals I was with each expressed the same view that the War in Iraq was the right thing to do, and Bush was the greatest president ever. “My god," I thought to myself. "This is a red state; rocks and people." I'd hate to know what they thought about gay marriage, or if they had any idea they'd just spent a night out with a pair of gay brothers. In other strange events, my grandmother announced she was cooking a ham instead of a turkey for Thanksgiving. A family coos ensued after this announcement.

Baltimore Washington International Airport

I recently gained the interest of a certain young man whom I decided to have lunch with on Tuesday the 21st of November 2006. Needless to say, after staring into his eyes for what seemed like only minutes, I realized that was late and going to miss my plane. I had an hour and forty minutes to make it from DuPont Circle to Baltimore Washington International Airport. In short, I was the terrorist on the road that day. Had it been any other day besides the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I probably would have made it. I zoomed to the terminal amazingly not killing anyone with my driving or road rage, parking in hourly parking at $20 per day. I quickly parked at what I thought was the closest spot, but turned out to be the farthest spot. I ran to the ticket counter and they told me I was too late. My rage boiled over because I knew that was the last direct flight to Phoenix. I stood next to the ticket agent shouting at my mother when another African-American ticket agent said to me in a very loud voice, "Sir is everything alright?" I turned to her and smiled and said, "Yes, course." No, everything was not alright. I had just missed my plane because of my own stupidity, but not wanting an altercation, I complied. It was almost if I had it ingrained in me to comply for fear of being labeled a crazy person, a disrupter of the peace, a terrorist. I was booked on the flight to Las Vegas which left 4 hours later, where I would connect to Phoenix. I lost my first class ticket - major bummer. I walked back to the Garage to move my car to daily parking for a cheaper $10 a day.

When I arrived at my car there was a $50 ticket for parking in an authorized vehicles only space. The space was reserved for Homeland Security Vehicles. Bull Shit. Going through security I was randomly selected to be searched. They sent me through a machine that blew air all over my body, but I didn't mind because it was faster than the main line. While I waited for a very portly TSA security agent to search my bag, which unbeknown to me had several containers with liquid in that I had forgot to take out, that he didn't find, I noticed the main line as compared to the special line. The concentration of foreign looking people were coming through the special line, including every single passenger that looked like he or she was of Middle Eastern decent. Coincidence? I think not. I parked myself at possibly the worst airport bar I've ever seen. Debbie was my waitress. She looked like a creature from night of the living dead. She is significant because she had to be wearing at least 20 different "Support Our Troops" pins in addition to two separate "We Will Never Forget" WTC pins and two different Pentagon pins. I counted the amount of people I saw walk by with American Flags on their clothing over the course of three hours: 39. One woman was wearing a head to toe outfit clad in the American flag. I accidentally ordered a double Grey Goose and tonic when I wanted soda for my first round, Fuck ME. I didn't tell Debbie because she was clearly working hard enough for the amount of money she was getting paid, and I liked her, I felt sorry for her, but I left her a generous tip, which made me feel happy. I found it surprising that most of the people in the bar were not the ones wearing the American flag garb. Most were alone and most were reading what seemed like non-fiction books. One woman was reading *BARF* author and now diplomat Karen Hughes's book, Bush at War. I hated this airport and there weren't any hot boys to look at. The flight was uneventful and cramped. I envied the first class passengers as I boarded the plane. I was supposed to be up there. I could fight off a terrorist plot better than most of the people up there.

I arrived in Las Vegas. Lots of fat people. And cops. Lots of cops. I ran from one terminal to another in a successful attempt to catch the earlier flight to Phoenix. I noticed a correlation between fat people and people wearing patriotic clothing. I finally arrived in Phoenix at 230am Mountain Time - 7 Hours after I was originally scheduled to arrive. I made it to the rental car company, a west coast company, Fox Rent a Car. I kid you not; the rent-a-car woman asked me if I wanted a complimentary magnetic decal for my Chrysler 300 Touring (I thought it looked like the Bat Mobile. My brother later agreed) that said, "Support Our Troops." "They're very popular," she said. "I have three on my car." I thought, my god, I can't possibly see more examples of the War & Terror on my 2 hour drive to Sedona. WRONG. I must have passed three billboards before leaving Phoenix that said, "Support Our Troops" or "Democracy in America, Democracy Abroad".




I was so hoping the night was over, but alas I was in the desert and I needed water. Just before arriving at the Sedona Hyatt, at approximately 5am, I pulled into an AM/PM gas station convenience store. I gathered several large bottles of water when without me knowing it the batty clerk came up behind me and shouted, "The terrorists are gonna nuke us!" I jumped and dropped my supply of water. "Are they?" I said. He went into a long rendition of how the terrorists will get a nuke from Iran. He was wearing an American flag shirt, but he wasn't overweight. He was missing quite a few teeth, however.

What is terrorism?

A simple dictionary definition:
terrorism:
noun
the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims

That's a pretty vague definition. Its even more difficult to define in the real world when everything is rather gray, and not black and white, and its easy to see how that definition could mean different things to different people.
I was trying to observe the effects of terrorism on the mall and I could think was that the effects are only visible at certain times, and at those times they are highly visible. That's why I thought the incident with the Imams on the US Airways flight was interesting. Those passengers probably hardly ever thought of the war or terrorism, and then suddenly, that was all they could think of.
I suppose I've seen more soliders in the airport than I used to a few years ago, and more flags maybe, but not noticeably so like it was a few years ago. For awhile I saw more patriotic clothing, but now in DC the only patriotic clothing I see is those cheap souvenir shirts. In general though, I think that this is something people hardly think of, until something dramatic happens and then for a bit its all we can think of.

6 men on a plane continued

That post was getting a little long, but I thought these two responses were very good. They sort of sum up the situation we are in.

Mona Charen: What happened was a shame, but necessary
http://www.startribune.com/562/story/833103.html (full article)

When passengers see six Arab men praying, talking animatedly in Arabic (a fellow passenger understood Arabic and was one of those who contacted a flight attendant), and then boarding an airplane and sitting in different places, I wonder what goes through their minds. Is it: "I sure don't like Muslims. Think I'll just harass and annoy them"? Or could it possibly be: "Oh dear God, this is what the 9/11 hijackers must have looked like"?

Is it discrimination? Well, of course it is. But that cannot be the end of the discussion. We are so robotic in America whenever the word "discrimination" is used that we shut down thought and genuflect in the direction of whoever is complaining. But the proper question is not whether it is discrimination but whether it is justified.

Ahmed Tharwat: Imams at airport should have known better
http://www.startribune.com/562/story/840610.html (full article)

It does not really matter to me if overzealous passengers or paranoid US Airways pilots demonstrated their cultural incompetence on board. What truly bothers me about this incident is that it appears to be not a clash of civilizations or cultures, but a clash of stupidity. From the common-sense view, the way those imams behaved and looked at the airport is part of the clash.

Any outraged Muslims should be aware that in a post-9/11 Islamic-phobic country, Muslims with huge untrimmed beards should just not pray in the boarding area at an airport. Period.


The airport was calm though (well as calm as an airport can be on Thanksgiving weekend), there were no protesters, no flags, nothing, just your usual security. However, local Muslims have asked the airport to put in a prayer room.

6 men removed from flight, questioned

A few days before Thanksgiving this headline appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune: 6 men removed from flight, questioned.
These six men were Muslim Imams, attending a conference of the North American Imams Federation, which was in Minneapolis. They were praying on their US Airways flight before takeoff when a passenger became concerned and passed a note to the flight attendant. The six men were then escorted off the flight (I believe I saw that they were in handcuffs).
Here is the orginal story:

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/825684.html

While the story didn't really make national news that much (I saw a blip about it on CNN) it was discussed a lot in the news and in the paper.
From a pundit on CNN:
"It just shows how little Americans trust their government if they feel they have to become vigilantes."

A link to an article that about people's reactions. Many liked to think they would have reacted differently. Others reflected that we all have to watch our behavior in airports, Muslims included. This comment came from a Somali airport worker. Minneapolis has a large Somali population, most of whom are Muslim. Many of the airport workers are Somali.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/828896.html
This is from a letter to the editor:
Apples and oranges

In reaction to six imams being removed from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis, Asad Zaman, communications director for the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, said, "This event would be the equivalent of Roman Catholic bishops being arrested in China because they wore clerical robes and invoked Jesus Christ in prayers."

The last time I checked there were no reports of Catholics flying planes into Chinese buildings.

PAUL JOHNSON, EDEN PRAIRIE

FDR's advice

Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous words "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance" are still timely.

The incident this week with several Islamic scholars is an important example of how fear can cripple us not only as a community, but as a nation. Suspicious activity is one we must all be aware of -- yet it is also important to understand that people of diverse faiths do things differently. There is a big difference between doing something unusual and doing something that should be considered "suspicious."

This incident humiliated innocent people visiting the Twin Cities. If several nuns or priests were praying while waiting for their flight at the airport and then were arrested and handcuffed on grounds of suspicious activity, the community would be in an uproar and justifiably so.

THASNEEM AHMED, WOODBURY