Muslims Upset With TSA Checkpoints Too: TSA Procedures Violate Parts of Their Faith

The Muslim faith requires women to cover up in loose fitting clothes to cover their shapes. Some factions go as far as covering their head as well. We now have Muslims who are complaining about the tyrannical checkpoints at the TSA. Oh the irony!


Erum Ikramullah, a 29-year-old Islamic woman, says she had to make a tough decision when she flew out of Reagan National last month. She cited that the Islamic faith requires, "a woman's body and a man's body are both pretty much private," she said. "I choose to cover myself and dress in loose-fitting clothing so the shape of my body is not revealed to everyone in the street."

She noted the naked full body scanners detail the entire shape of your body as she described the process of going through the pat downs.

"It can be humiliating when you're standing there and people are walking by, seeing you get the pat-down," she said. "You just feel like you have a target on your head."

It appears if the goal is keeping Muslims off of airplanes, the goal is being met.

"I've had a lot of Muslims, and particularly Muslim women, say they're going to put off travel plans as much as is humanly possible because they just can't take the humiliation of it all," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "They're tired of being singled out for their attire. We have reports of Muslim women in tears."

According to Kentucky.com, it's not just the Islamic faith that is starting to stand up against the TSA checkpoints. Orthodox Jews and Southern Baptists are too.

"In Jewish law, the issue of modesty is a very fundamental element of Jewish life, and going through a machine that exposes a person's body parts offends a person's religious sensibilities," said Rabbi Abba Cohen, vice president for federal affairs and Washington director for Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox Jewish organization that has worked with the TSA. "It's clearly a picture that exposes private body parts, and I know in our community there would be a great discomfort in going through these machines."

Cohen said Orthodox Jews also have complained about the intrusiveness of the "enhanced" pat-downs. Some married Orthodox women, who hide their hair in public, have been asked to remove their wigs at airport security, he said, adding that he plans to talk with the TSA about the issue.

As for conservative Christians, "there aren't any specific Bible verses that say, 'Thou shalt not be patted down by a government agent just to get on an airplane,' but it would be a question of modesty," said Mike Farris, chancellor of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., and a leader in the evangelical movement.

Richard Land, head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention, which has 16.3 million members, said he has heard "a great deal of consternation and indignation" about the scanners.
"Conservative Southern Baptists, they're talking about the modesty issues," Land said. "The Bible's pretty clear about nakedness not being something which is supposed to be public. It's a disgrace."

He has encouraged Southern Baptists to find alternatives to air travel and to call airlines to let them know why. Comparing it to the Montgomery bus boycott in the 1950s, he said, "We've got to go to the airlines and make it hurt."