Since I first began writing for this weblog, my mother has expressed concern that my liberal views and unabashed criticism of the Bush administration might put me on some sort of government watch list or lead to extra scrutiny (and hassle) when I travel. To date, and to my knowledge, I have not incurred any such consequences. But my traveling has been limited, and it has been many years since I have been abroad.

However, given the increasing use of Google searches by Border Protection officers and increasing reports of travelers being challenged—or, in some cases, detained—because of the views they have previously expressed and published on the Internet, I cannot help but wonder what I might encounter were I, for example, to take a trip to Canada and back. Would my experience be like that of Zakariya Muhammad Reed and his family, as detailed below by The Progressive? Would it be like that of Andrew Feldmar? It is difficult to speculate.

I would hope—though, given recent history, hardly expect—that the government and its agents would have enough common sense not to misinterpret criticism and dissent as a potential threat to national security. I would hope that the government would not view me or treat me as suspect simply because I choose to actively exercise my freedom of speech and air my grievances. I would hope that I would never experience the sort of harassment and intimidation that Zakariya Reed has been forced to endure:

Muslim American Grilled at Border Over Religion, Letter to the Editor

Zakariya Muhammad Reed spent 20 years serving in the National Guard. For the last eleven years, he’s been a firefighter in Toledo.

But this hasn’t kept him from being viewed with suspicion by his own government.

Four times in the last six months, Reed has been detained coming over the border from Canada.

He goes up there because his wife’s family lives in Ontario.

The Canadians don’t bother him, he says. But the Americans do.

His is just one of many such cases reported by Muslim Americans. The ACLU has a lawsuit pending against Homeland Security for its alleged religious and ethnic profiling.

Reed’s case is a particularly eye-opening one.

The first time, Reed, his wife, and their two small children were coming back at about 11:00 p.m, so the kids would be asleep, he says.

“We pulled up to the booth at the Windsor-Detroit crossing,� he recalls. “They asked for my ID, I gave them my passport, they swiped it, and the there was a look of shock on the guard’s face as he closed the window. Suddenly, there were five guys surrounding the car with their hands on their weapons. They told me to turn the car off and keep my hands on the wheel, and they opened my door and led me into the building.�

His wife and their two children had to come in and stay in a common area, he says, as border agents took him down the hall.

“They put me up against the wall and frisked me and took everything in my pockets,� he says. “Then they put me in a four by eight foot room with two armed guards.� [full text]