Article - Muslim Sent Home and a personal story on discrimination against Muslims and Arabs at airports

Muslim Sent Home in the Wash Post describes how Rashad Bukhari, a Pakistani citizen with a multiple entry visa to the US and works for the organization Search for Common Ground (works to solve conflicts around the world), was denied entry to the US the other day.

The author, John Mark, a colleague describes well how detrimental these kinds incidents are the the US reputation abroad and to individuals (like Mr. Bukhari) and organizations who are trying to help in build and repair bridges between the US and the Muslim world. Mr. Bukhari is quoted in the articles describing how it is a blow to him on many levels - personally (insulting and will make it more difficult for him to travel int he future) and professionally (exactly the kind of discrimination and misunderstanding he works to end.)

Last summer when I studied Arabic at the French Institute for Near East Studies in Damascus, Syria. It was a great program and one of my professors, who I will not name as I did not ask his permission to recount this story, told us one day in class that he had been to the US and would never go back. Of course we asked why. The story he told was deeply saddened me and still does to this day.

This professor, by the way, is a jolly old, curmudgeonly, insightful Syrian man, really great sense of humor. He also started one of the first human rights organizations in Syria (you'd think the US might want to welcome him here...) and is a well known and well respected scholar, published on many topics. He came to the US for the MESA (Middle Eastern Studies Assoc) annual conference and was detained and interrogated at Dulles. He did not go into the details of his detention, I think it was just too embarrassing and sad for him. He wasn't angry about his incident - rather disappointed, I think. He will never try to come back to the US and no one here will benefit from his activism and knowledge on the Syria and the region.

These policies hurt the US and the world on many levels. My professor and Rashad Bukhari are individuals who are trying to build relationships between the US and the Muslim world - they are our best diplomats and the US government immigration policies are inhibiting their work. Secondly, these discriminatory policies hurt our reputation in the region. This has happened to countless other individuals, students, scholars, activists (Tariq Ramadan's Notre Dame experience...) and each one returns to their home to tell their story of rejection. It's like the effects of our torture policies.