Muslim women exempt from pat-down -- STOP the Madness!!!

[DrewBlows]

...Special recommendations for Muslim women who wear hijab:

• If you are selected for secondary screening after you go through the metal detector and it does not go off, and "sss" is not written on your boarding pass, ask the TSA officer if the reason you are being selected is because of your head scarf.
• In this situation, you may be asked to submit to a pat-down or to go through a full body scanner. If you are selected for the scanner, you may ask to go through a pat-down instead.
• Before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down....

Those conditions are essentially exemptions. I have to remove my baseball cap, even though doing so subjects the traveling public to the horrors of my 'hat head' hair. Apply the rules equally!

You have the same rights as a Muslim woman. What on this list is an exception?

 

[b707guy]

I suppose I could ask to pat myself down under my retained hat, in private, then have the officer do a chemical swipe of my hand. Those are the next steps beyond the ones I quoted above. But the way the rules are presented, they seem to cater to traditional mostly-Arabic female garb. However, in all honesty, I don't recall ever seeing any men sporting a kufiya attempting to go through security, even in places like Bahrain, Dubai, Amman, etc, let alone in the US, to know how they are handled. But at the same time, even if the female passenger is 'randomly selected', beyond setting off a detector or having 'sss' on her boarding card, she can forgo a full body pat-down by the rules as stated. Again, the rules aren't presented in such a way that you or I couldn't demand the same, but I doubt in reality that we'd receive the same treatment by the end of the process.

 

[ImbracableCrunk]

For those of you who don't read English so good:

If you are selected for secondary screening because of the headcovering (baseball hat, hijab, dunce cap, etc), the TSA is supposed to only do a pat-down on the area that is the cause of the secondary screening (i.e. the headcovering area).

If you were put into secondary screening because of something in your bag, they would only (in the same theory) inspect the bag. Dunno if that's how it works in practice, but that's what CAIR is saying.

 

[b707guy]

Let's go back to the beginning of this: A female passenger passes through the metal detector without an alert. She is wearing a headscarf of some sort, and is selected for secondary screening. She has two options if she wants to get on that plane: the full body scanner or the enhanced pat down. Her fundamental beliefs are in jeopardy if she is viewed through the scanner so she opts for the enhanced pat down. However, her personal comfort is violated if her enhanced pat down includes anything but the headscarf, and she makes those feelings known to the TSA agent. Things that go boom these days can make it through metal detectors. So now a person so inclined can put something that goes boom (and which doesn't set off the metal detector) in their underwear or anywhere but near their head for that matter, opt out of the full body scanner, suffer the indignity of the partial so-called enhanced pat down, walk on the plane with sensibilities and explosives intact, and be the breaking story on Fox, CNN, and MSNBC in a few hours. I didn't say it very well before, so here's where I was trying to go with my comment: Rules were written for a reason, stick with them! As soon as you start allowing exceptions, someone will find a way to take advantage of you. Personally, I don't want to see that happen again. Regardless of what I choose to wear to the airport.

 

[ImbracableCrunk]

Let's go back to the beginning of this: A female passenger passes through the metal detector without an alert. She is wearing a headscarf of some sort, and is selected for secondary screening. She has two options if she wants to get on that plane: the full body scanner or the enhanced pat down. Her fundamental beliefs are in jeopardy if she is viewed through the scanner so she opts for the enhanced pat down. However, her personal comfort is violated if her enhanced pat down includes anything but the headscarf, and she makes those feelings known to the TSA agent. Things that go boom these days can make it through metal detectors. So now a person so inclined can put something that goes boom (and which doesn't set off the metal detector) in their underwear or anywhere but near their head for that matter, opt out of the full body scanner, suffer the indignity of the partial so-called enhanced pat down, walk on the plane with sensibilities and explosives intact, and be the breaking story on Fox, CNN, and MSNBC in a few hours. I didn't say it very well before, so here's where I was trying to go with my comment: Rules were written for a reason, stick with them! As soon as you start allowing exceptions, someone will find a way to take advantage of you. Personally, I don't want to see that happen again. Regardless of what I choose to wear to the airport.

There are no exceptions.

Scanner = Yes --> Scanner for everyone
Scanner = No --> Full Patdown for everyone

Metal Detector + Selectee = Full Patdown for everyone
Metal Detector + They Don't Like Item X = Patdown of Item X for everyone

It has nothing to do with being a Muslim. It has to do with the TSA wanting to give you 2ndary screeing without your being a Selectee but because of Item X.

Item X could be anything that they want to check. If it's your bag, it's your bag. If it's your belt, it's your belt. They get to check whatever made you a target for 2ndary screening.

All that is being said is, if you were not a selectee and they want to check something, they check that thing, and that thing only. They don't get to play with your junk because of your hat.

 

[b707guy]

I'll buy that. CAIR isn't exactly unbiased or driven by any special interests, so I failed to consider the source. I shut up now (END THIS NOW!!!)