Muslims Not Big Fans of PHL Security — and Vice Versa
Philadelphia International Airport was involved in an embarrassing homeland security incident last week when it detained seven-year-old Javaid Iqbal because his name resembles that of a 39-year-old Pakistani terror suspect. This was big news internationally, as it pointed both to potential problems with the U.S.’s terror-fighting policies and a possible profiling situation. But if you check with the local media — or even airport staff — Iqbal’s accidental detainment appears never to have happened.
Iqbal was traveling with his family to Orlando from Manchester, England. His name was flagged at Manchester initially, then in Orlando as well. His parents were told at both airports that the mistake would be fixed. However, the Muslim News (take its authority whichever way you like) reported that the Iqbal family was especially inconvenienced at Philadelphia International Airport on the way back:
“When they came to Philadelphia to catch the plane back to Manchester, airport officials said the booking was cancelled and said they could not travel on that day. My wife asked: ‘Why?’ They said: ‘Because there is a security block on Javaid’s name.’ My wife said: ‘Solve the problem, we are here.’ Airport officials replied: ‘We have checked the system three times, we cannot help you, and you might have to go to New York.’ At this my wife phoned me and started crying over the phone. When she started crying, my kids started crying. I felt helpless as I was not there to help them.”
The situation was eventually resolved, but PHL’s media relations department says it has no knowledge of the incident with the Iqbal family and pushed all calls over to the Transportation Security Administration. TSA spokesperson Ann Davis tells the Daily Examiner that she isn’t familiar with this incident either, but there have been screw-ups in regards to children sharing the same name as no-fly suspects. She says it’s supposed to be handled by the airport’s security, who can easily use “common sense” to “de-select” any of the suspects by sight only: “It’s up to the them to determine that the seven-year-old boy they’re looking at is obviously not a terrorist.”
Davis adds that the TSA is working on a better system that will actually display the birth date of all potential air travelers to avoid this type of confusion. It’ll “hopefully” be in place by next year, she says.
What’s also rather strange is the lack of local coverage on the incident, especially at the Inquirer, which seemingly missed the incident while detailing all other security problems at PHL last week.
Boy mistaken for terror suspect [BBC]
7-year-old boy treated as terror suspect [The Muslim News]
Photo: BBC
