Canada’s No-fly list -- A False Sense of Security
This is based on a close review of the U.S. experience as well as the plight of individuals who are already encountering difficulties in flying within Canada without Ottawa even having an official list of our own yet. The extraterritorial application of U.S. watch lists is already impacting us; how will we fare once we have our own list interacting with, confirming and/or merging with other lists? Hasty and ill-considered national security initiatives, which are essentially aimed at managing public perceptions more than they are in really addressing legitimate and manageable security concerns, will not move us forward in the fight to disrupt terrorism. It will only complicate the lives of innocent Canadians and increase the opportunity for religious and racial profiling. No matter how vigorously it is denied, racial/religious profiling is too often the reality for a growing number among Canada's Muslim and Arab communities and certainly in the national security context. The experience of many Canadians who have already been caught up in the web of watch lists, in areas other than flying - be it for opening bank accounts, wiring money, sending courier packages, etc. - does not bode well for the no-fly list.

Too Guilty to Fly, Too Innocent to Charge?
Transport Canada must not be given a carte blanche to deprive Canadians of our liberty, mobility, equality and privacy rights, even though aviation security has now become a legitimate national security concern. The government’s appeal to national security should not exempt it from due process, principles of fundamental justice, accountability, transparency, oversight and a full Parliamentary debate.

Billboard Muslims
By Manzoor Cheema “Don’t License Terrorists, North Carolina” read proposed billboards in our sleepy Tar Heel state, featuring a militant in an Arab garb and a rocket launcher. The news for such billboards electrified civil rights bodies and before...

The Five Year Old Terrorist
By Mohammed Askari Chandoo Meet Faizan Sayeed, the five year old terrorist. A threat to our homeland. Someone who, if left without the supervision of a babysitter, might kill thousands of Americans. Welcome to George Bush's America. On a...

Top American Muslim/Arab-American Radiation Hot Spots Reported by the FBI
By Riad Abdelkarim Note: the following are fictitious examples of real occurrences—we suspect! These days, it seems that truth is far stranger than fiction. Since a list of the targets of the recent widely reported warrantless radiation monitoring by federal...

Sleepless in Los Angeles: Showtime's "Sleeper Cell"
In spite of all its melodramatic hype, the more I watched, the more I was surprised to discover that this is one series that’s more intriguing for the things it gets right than it is for the things it gets wrong.

Is Australia a Racist Country?
By Najad Abdul-Aziz This piece is partially inspired by a comment from a reader arguing the concept of Arab victimhood: “At what point does one tire of the narcissism of Arab victimhood, and will we ever reach this point in...

American Degrees
By Amel Ahmed It's politics man and they are playing games and they are spinning it. They are out there spinning for the cameras. ...The government is feeding the people a line of bull. Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin....

Don't Succumb to Imams, Rabbis and Priests: One Law for All Citizens
What began as a cost-cutting measure has today split Canada's Muslim community, made strange bedfellows of otherwise hostile faith-based groups and led to the Quebec National Assembly rejecting sharia.

Gay Marriage: A Necessary Freedom
If we as Muslims strive for equal rights within this country, then are we not hypocritical to go against the equal rights of others?

In the Fight Against Terrorism, Some Rights Must Be Repealed
In the post 9/11 world where supposedly “everything has changed,” perhaps it is time for Americans to reconsider the value of public gun ownership.

The '24' Conundrum
It is the case, unfortunately, that some angry Americans don't distinguish between terrorists and law-abiding American Muslims.

A Chip Off the Old Block: Why the Fearmongers Want to Keep Tariq Ramadan Out
Why do some camps continue to portray Tariq Ramadan as a threat to a civilized way of life (as in France) or to national security (as in the US)? And why are these portrayals deemed credible by a considerable number of people?

Sharia Is Neither Islamic, nor Canadian
While the proponents justify the Sharia Board in the name of equal opportunity for the Muslim community, the opponents regard such a move as being contrary to Canadian constitution and anticipate gross violations of Muslim women's right to custody, inheritance and post-divorce alimony.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like: Joining a Quarter of a Million Marchers in New York to Welcome the Republicans
I was among the quarter of a million people marching in New York City on the eve of the Republican Convention, the largest demonstration at a political convention in the history of the United States.

A Paranoid Muslim's Terror Alert System
I ran into Sanjay here. Sanjay wants to know if I feel in danger because, well, peace is a radical idea. I feel fairly safe. I do not really think about it a lot.

Whose Rights, Anyway? Justice for Mohamed Harkat
Protecting one’s country from terrorism has never been as much of a concern as it is today. Yet in the name of “national security,” the Canadian government has violated fundamental human rights and has gone against its own democratic beliefs.

The Replacement Negroes: Abu Ghraib and the New Generation Plantation
The image from Abu Ghraib forced me to remember a time when I was 12 years old, visiting my grandmother in the Bronx.

Suffering for the Horrendous Acts of a Few
When U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft warned people to report suspicious activities to the police, his words encouraged the public to scrutinize Middle Eastern and Muslim families. At the time, I didn’t realize his words could affect my life.

Driving While Arab and Muslim
I pulled over to the side of the road and was wondering why he was stopping me of all the people that were traveling on the freeway, some going quite a bit faster than I was.

Jews Are Not the Enemy, House of Saud
Dear Saudi Royal Family, and the Guardians of the Two Holy Places (Chevron and Raytheon). The BBC is claiming that you are not giving tourist visas to Jews. Shame on you. We need to talk.

"We Have Too Many Mexicans": An Interview with ISNA's Anti-Alcohol Partner, Howard Lydick
"If we let the entire world move here, our cities will begin looking like New Delhi. We have too many Mexicans coming here. They don't want to be good Americans. They still celebrate Cinco de Mayo instead of the Fourth of July."

New Canadian heroine emerges from Arar case
By Haroon Siddiqui I first heard her on CBC-Radio. She was as calm as the subject matter was unsettling — her husband's unknown fate in a jail in a far-off land of torture. She was as methodical as his...

They Can Take You Away & Tell No One: The Case of Maher Arar
What befell Mahar Arar could be your, my fate. What is to stop the FBI from throwing a blanket over your head, putting you on a plane to Jordan with U.S. Marshals as your escort, and dumping you in Syria to be tortured? Not a damn thing as I can see it. Keep in mind, that your family and friends won't know about any of this, you won't have any access to an attorney and, if and when you are released and in the slim chance return home, you won't have any redress against the federal government. For the government will deny that it ever happened.

McCarthyism Ashcroft-Style: Post 9/11 Immigration Policies
Since these new policies have been implemented more than one year has passed, and thousands have been detained and deported, but only four have been arrested upon connection to terrorism. The overwhelming majority of immigrants were detained, as time would show, for no other reason than they were Muslim and held citizenship in a Muslim country.

Welcome Home: The Story of My INS Detention
My turn came, and I approached the female immigration officer at the counter.