From The Progressive:

Two Rows Over a T-Shirt with Arabic on It

This is a story about one T-shirt that caused two rows.

The shirt has the phrase “We will not be silent,� written both in English and in Arabic.

This may seem innocuous enough, but not in today’s America, where the very sight of Arabic alarms some citizens, as well as Homeland Security.

On August 12, Raed Jarrar, who works for Global Exchange in Washington, DC, was wearing that T-shirt as he was trying to board a JetBlue flight from JFK to California.

While he was at the gate eating some cheese and grapes and drinking some orange juice, two men approached him and one flashed his badge, Jarrar writes on his blog raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com. They asked for his boarding pass and driver’s license.

“People are feeling offended because of your T-shirt,� said one of the men, whom Jarrar identifies as Inspector Harris.

“He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags,� Jarrar relates on the blog. “And I asked him, ‘Why do you want me to take off my T-shirt? Isn’t it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?’ . . . Do you have an order against Arabic T-shirts? Is there such a law against Arabic script?’ �

Here’s what Inspector Harris said, according to Jarrar: “You can’t wear a T-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It is like wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘I am a robber’ and going to a bank.� [full text]