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AAI in the News

License ad offends Arabs

The Washington Times
Posted on Tuesday December 20, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C.—A group that is trying to tighten the standards for obtaining driver’s licenses has come under fire for plans to post a billboard with a picture of an Arab clutching a grenade and a North Carolina license.

“The message of the ad says that Arabs are dangerous and violent people and that, therefore, they should not get driver’s licenses, and I think that is bigoted. It’s racist,” said Christine Saah Nazer, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Arab American Institute.

Amanda Bowman, president of the New York-based Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License, which is launching the billboard campaign in North Carolina and two other states, said: “We’re not going after Arab-Americans. We’re going after terrorists.”

The billboard, scheduled to go up this month near the state Capitol in Raleigh, shows a man in a traditional Arab head scarf. The billboard reads: “Don’t license terrorists, North Carolina.” Similar billboards are planned for New Mexico and Wisconsin, the coalition said.

Miss Bowman said North Carolina lags in efforts to tighten driver’s-license laws since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.