Muslim traveller mistreated in Pinellas County Jail
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has apologized to a Muslim traveller strip-searched at the Pinellas County Jail after being detained at Tampa International Airport in April.
Federal agents said they denied Spanish citizen Safana Jawad entry to the U.S. on April 11 because she was suspected of being associated with someone they view as suspicious.
Jawad, 45, was taken to the jail, strip-searched according to protocol and held in a maximum security cell for two days. She was never told the identity of the suspicious person.
Jawad, who was born in Iraq, had flown to the United States to visit her son, Hany Kubba, 16, who then lived in Clearwater with her ex-husband, Ahmad Maki Kubba.
Jawad was deported to England on April 13 and has since filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security about being mistreated by customs officials as well as staff at the Pinellas County Jail.
In a letter dated Dec. 8, the Department of Homeland Security apologized only for the strip search.
"On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, I offer you my sincere apology for having to undergo a strip search," wrote Timothy J. Keefer, deputy officer and acting chief counsel for the department's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which handles complaints.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security would not release the name of the suspicious person Jawad was suspected of being associated with and would not comment on whether they believe she was rightfully detained.
Attached to the letter with no explanation was a photocopy of a notice that tells Transportation Security Administration officials about Muslim head coverings and how to treat Muslim travellers respectfully when searching them. [full text]
How strange that those who guard the gates must be reminded or instructed how to treat others respectfully. How sad that tolerance and understanding--along with common sense and courtesy--oft seem wanting. Perhaps, like so much else, these qualities were lost amid the rubble on 9/11. Perhaps, in the dusty, acrid shadows, intolerance took root.
Decades ago, Mohandas Gandhi opined that "intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit." What would he think of these times, this world? Were he permitted to travel to America (unlike the Muslim scholar, Tariq Ramadan) and offer his reflections, what would Gandhi say? And with what suspicion or hostility would this nation receive "the little half-naked brown man" who forever transformed the landscape of human resistance and dignity?
One can only speculate. Perhaps, if given the opportunity, Gandhi would hearken back to a different September 11th, one that was not occasioned by horrific violence but by the birth of non-violence:
It all began on September 11, 1906, when Mohandas K. Gandhi, a 37-year old lawyer, rose to address the packed Empire Theatre in Johannesburg.
Gandhi and his colleagues had convened this meeting to mobilise the Indian community against a proposed South African legislative ordinance that would limit their travels through "pass laws." Gandhi later wrote about that day:
"The Indians solemnly determined not to submit to the Ordinance in the event of its becoming law in the teeth of their opposition, and to suffer all the penalties attaching to such non-submission... All present standing with upraised hands, took an oath with God as witness not to submit to the Ordinance... I can never forget the scene."
So continued Gandhi's journey from privileged attorney to great soul--the Mahatma. And so was born Satyagraha--the philosophy of non-violent action. [full text]
Gandhi understood that those living in the shadow of oppression and intolerance ought respond not with darkness but with light. Violence, hatred, and retribution might stir the heart, but they stain the soul. Howsoever difficult, "you must be the change you wish to see in the world." Americans would do well to heed these words and the lessons of a century past. The time has come to take leave of the mournful shadows and embrace the light.
