T-Shirt With Arabic Slogan Sparks Airport Feud

August 31, 2006 7:42 p.m. EST


Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Staff Writer
New York, NY (AHN) - Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi peace activist was forced to conceal his T-shirt, while boarding a JetBlue Airways flight to Oakland, Calif., which the officials told him, was offensive. According to Jarrar, the incident happened on Aug 12 at JFK airport, when four officials approached him and told that he could not board with the shirt saying "We will not be silent," on.

One official told him, "Going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says, 'I'm a robber,"' he said.

Jarrar, who directs the Iraq project for Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization, said he refused a suggestion from the officials that he turn his shirt inside out. Thereafter, the officials gave Jarrar another shirt to wear over his.

Jarrar said he was also forced to give up his seat near the front of the plane and was issued a new boarding pass for a seat in the rear.

JetBlue confirmed the incident and that it was investigating. It was not clear whether it was officials from JetBlue, the federal Transportation Security Administration or the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, who told Jarrar to remove his shirt, the airlines said.

The incident comes two days after the British authorities announced that they had foiled a plot to blow up transatlantic jetliners.

"We Will Not Be Silent" is a slogan adopted by opponents of the war in Iraq and other conflicts in the Middle East.