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DHS Clarifies Position on Muslim Travelers

Posted on Wednesday November 9, 2005

WASHINGTON – The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) clarified statements made in an Associated Press news story entitled, “Homeland Security Rights Chief Urges Muslim Fliers to Register.”

Daniel Sutherland, Director of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, said in a statement sent to the Arab American Institute November 8 that it was not the intention of DHS to ‘urge’ Muslims to register.

Many may have misunderstood the November 7 story to mean that individuals of a certain religion or ethnicity must register with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) prior to traveling. The story states that this procedure is used in order to reduce the problem with “false positive” identification of individuals who may have names similar to those on the TSA “watch list.”

“If a particular individual is having serious trouble in getting cleared to fly, and believes that problem comes from a mistaken match to an aviation watch list, then he or she should consider making use of the redress process that TSA offers. Obviously, we would not encourage large numbers of people of any particular race, ethnicity or religion to register with the government prior to traveling. That would be nonsense,” Sutherland said.

Sutherland deals regularly with issues affecting the Arab American and American Muslim communities and is concerned with providing accurate information on security issues.