WASHINGTON, 11 January 2007 — A month after the removal of six imams from a US Airways flight spurred accusations of harassment, the federal government has given airport security trainers cultural awareness training about the annual Haj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
"The cultural awareness training involved reminders about how to screen people with head coverings, policies regarding transport of Zamzam water and the proper respect to show when handling a Qur’an," Amy Kudwa, a transportation security administration spokeswoman, told reporters.
Throughout January, as many as 20,000 American Muslims will be returning to the United States from their Haj pilgrimage.
In preparation, the TSA has increased cultural-awareness training for all 43,000 of its screeners. Their goal — to remind screeners what to expect from Muslims and how to go about screening them while also respecting their religious beliefs.
"We put out information telling everyone about Haj," TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser told reporters.
Kudwa said the special training for screeners was a first, but dismissed any connection to the incident when a US Airways pilot ordered six imams off a flight after receiving multiple complaints, among them that the men had prayed before boarding the plane.
"The reason we amplified it this year was because of the liquid and gel ban," she said.
"We wanted to make sure we were prepared for people wanting to transport holy water."
Muslims believe that the water from the Zamzam well in Makkah is divinely blessed and return to the United States with containers of it.
TSA and other law-enforcement agencies say they are working hard to ensure that no one's civil rights are violated, which is why officials believed the Haj merited additional training.
The Council of American-Islamic Relations says its officials gave airport police and FBI, the TSA, Homeland Security Department and customs officials lessons about the pilgrimage and what they can expect from returning Muslims.
The meeting was part of CAIR's nationwide initiative following the removal of six imams from the US Airways flight. Federal officials questioned the men and released them without charges.
The effort has resulted in Arab-American and Muslim-American leaders praising the measure. But they say it is part of a much-needed larger cultural and political conversation about Islam and Arab culture that can help the nation as it heals from the aftereffects of 9/11.
"Their efforts are a modest but important beginning," Jack Shaheen, professor emeritus of mass communications at Southern Illinois University, told reporters. "But until such time that we react to the vilification of and discrimination against Arabs in the same way we react to the vilification of others like Jews, blacks, and Hispanics, I'm not going to go dancing in the streets."
A recent poll found that almost half of Americans have a negative view of Islam, even though 60 percent say they're not knowledgeable about it. More than 1 in 4 believes such statements as: "The Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred."
