Consenting Muslims in America

[rug]

The scholar recounts his brief detention and interrogation at JFK airport.

Last updated: 19 Nov 2013 18:16
Hamid Dabashi
Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

He was a federal officer, standing over my tired bones and heavily jetlagged body with a gun and a handcuff and the full authority to do with me what he pleased. I was homo sacer incarnate, reduced to my zoë, full of fear and loathing - how could I grant or deny him 'consent?'

On the evening of November 13, I flew back from Gwangju, South Korea - where I was invited to participate in Gwangju Biennale - to JFK airport in New York. Upon exiting the airplane I was met by two CBP (US Customs and Border Protection) agents who collected my passport and escorted me to their headquarters at the airport. I was then asked to empty all my pockets, and my small handbag was thoroughly searched. The agent in charge then picked a number of items in my possession - including my credit card receipts, driver's license, Columbia University ID, iPhone, iPad, and a handbook in which I write my various notes.

"Have you ever been with us," one of the two officers asked me at the airplane door. No sir, I said. They had come all the way to the very door of the plane, and were looking at people’s passports until they reached me and the instant they had me, they let the others pass unhindered. They were obviously looking for me. This was no random search. This was a deliberate and targeted search for me.

I was made to sit down while the CBP officers filled out forms for which they asked me detailed questions including my parents' names, my height, weight, the colour of my hair and eyes, my home address, etc. Then photocopies of the items the officers had taken from me were made - including a full photocopy of my notebook in which I write anything from the daily chores I need to do, to the outline of a lecture I have to give to my class, the outline of my columns for Al Jazeera or other venues, and the outlines of arguments for more extended essays or even books. It is the closest thing a writer has to a Catholic confessional box - I pray, I play, and I think in the notebook.

After almost three hours, I was given back these items, was escorted to the exit, and was told by the accompanying officer that this was perhaps a case of mistaken identity. He also gave me a Homeland Security brochure which informed me as to how I might request a redress of the procedure to which I had just been subjected.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/consenting-muslims-america-2013111744019446852.html

[IrishAyes]

1. None of us is safe until we're ALL safe from various abuses,

irrespective of color or creed.

[cbayer]

2. I was recently interviewed by CBP for a Global Entry Pass.

They are serious and very intimidating.

I can't even imagine what it would be like to be detained by them.