Flying While Muslim: Racial Profiling Post-9/11

Last night I went to the screening of a documentary in progress called, “Flying While Muslim” by Lyra Porras Garzon. The documentary is mainly about the racial profiling of Muslims in the US post-9/11.Although I thought that the documentary had looked at the concept of being “Muslim” from a very general point of view and I felt that many details about the dynamics of Muslim communities and the interactions of Muslims within their own communities were missing, I thought it was a very interesting and an important documentary. In my opinion, during our time it is very important to one way or another raise awareness about the life of Muslims in the West, their criticism of terrorism and how they are being viewed by others. It is important to raise awareness about the legal situation of Muslims in the West, negative and positive opinions about them as a whole and to present the human side of their lives to the West.

To watch a preview of this documentary, click here.

“Racial Profiling is any police or private security practice in which a person is treated as a suspect because of his or her race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. This occurs when police investigate, stop, frisk, search or use force against a person based on such characteristics instead of evidence of a person's criminal behavior. It often involves the stopping and searching of people of color for traffic violations, known as "DWB" or "driving while black or brown." Although normally associated with African Americans and Latinos, racial profiling and "DWB" have also become shorthand phrases for police stops of Asians, Native Americans, and, increasingly after 9/11, Arabs, Muslims and South Asians".

The American Civil Liberties Union