PhD. student Al Sha'ali from the United Arab Emirates was detained with his wife and three children at Los Angeles International Airport by the US immigration officials for more than 26 hours. He was later released after the intervention of the UAE Embassy in the US. Anyway, the American administration was quick to cancel Sha'ali's residence visa. Sha'ali is a doctoral candidate in information technology at Claremont University in Los Angeles. [ UAE student falls victim to profiling ]
This story has been on the front-page of Newspapers; Gulf News says, "Arabs and Muslims are increasingly complaining of being singled out in western airports for racial profiling."
Such profiling happens when ignorant and incompetent set of people develop security systems in a first world nation such as the United States. To be prejudiced needs no intellectual capacity.
Sha'ali was discriminated and denied of basic human rights and dignity. Now that he is back in his country, Sha'ali should talk to a certain Madan Mohan Sharma, who was Jailed and fined for no fault of his. He would then be in a position to lead a great new awakening of a national conscience.
It is true, very true, that prejudices exist in a very crude form. Most of us have been through many such painful experiences due to various forms of prejudices: racist, sexist, class....
Having said that, it is quite easy to lay the blame on governments, regimes and the public sector. Even in the private sector and in personal lives we find that prejudices are a part of life. Sad.
What needs to be done is to educate millions and millions of people that ALL MEN AND WOMEN ARE EQUAL AND DESERVES RESPECT.
Discrimination is a crime. There is no innocence in a crime committed out of ignorance. Most cases of discrimination and lack of respect to the other person can be tracked back to sheer ignorance. That is why we need to educate people on how to be decent citizens.
Not just charity begins at home. Decency too begins at home.
This story has been on the front-page of Newspapers; Gulf News says, "Arabs and Muslims are increasingly complaining of being singled out in western airports for racial profiling."
Such profiling happens when ignorant and incompetent set of people develop security systems in a first world nation such as the United States. To be prejudiced needs no intellectual capacity.
Sha'ali was discriminated and denied of basic human rights and dignity. Now that he is back in his country, Sha'ali should talk to a certain Madan Mohan Sharma, who was Jailed and fined for no fault of his. He would then be in a position to lead a great new awakening of a national conscience.
It is true, very true, that prejudices exist in a very crude form. Most of us have been through many such painful experiences due to various forms of prejudices: racist, sexist, class....
Having said that, it is quite easy to lay the blame on governments, regimes and the public sector. Even in the private sector and in personal lives we find that prejudices are a part of life. Sad.
What needs to be done is to educate millions and millions of people that ALL MEN AND WOMEN ARE EQUAL AND DESERVES RESPECT.
Discrimination is a crime. There is no innocence in a crime committed out of ignorance. Most cases of discrimination and lack of respect to the other person can be tracked back to sheer ignorance. That is why we need to educate people on how to be decent citizens.
Not just charity begins at home. Decency too begins at home.
4 comments:
What was the reason given for revoking his VISA SBG? I would be curious to know and you should be as well.
Perhaps there was a very good reason. Perhaps not but at the very least shouldn't we know the "WHY" before we jump to conclusions?
The US State Department has apologised to UAE Embassy officials and launched an investigation into the 26-hour detention of UAE student Saif Al Sha'ali at Los Angeles Airport on Monday, diplomatic source told Gulf News on Thursday.
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The US government doesn't revoke people's visas on a whim nor does it stop travellers in airports for interrogation because they are bored. Simply put, Arab Muslims kill Americans for their religion. That's the reason why they attract attention. It's likely the US government knows something about Mr. Sha'ali that leads it to believe he would be a danger to Americans.
However, I do agree with you that all people do deserve respect. Perhaps you could start spreading that around the mosques, let the worshippers there get the word that non-Muslims are not to be blown up for Islam. If Muslims gave respect to others, they would receive more of it. As it is now, Muslims are viewed with suspicion because they make war on non-Muslims where ever they go in the world.
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