Was the Star of a New Movie About Profiling, Profiled?
By Mary Theroux • Monday August 17, 2009 10:20 PM PDT • 3 Comments
As candidate for irony of the year award, note this news item wherein Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan
was detained Friday by U.S. immigration officials at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey because his name matched with some names on a computer alert list. The actor is in the U.S. to promote a new film, “My Name is Khan,” which is about racial profiling of Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Read the full account here.
Tags: Civil Liberties, Constitution, Entertainment, Personal Liberty, Police, Transportation, War 
That’s terrible, when will we put a stop to this nonsense. Yes, I understand that we need to protect our country, but if he says he’s a STAR, then let him go by w/o any hassles. What will he think of we as Americans?
henryyoung | Aug 18, 2009 | Reply
I do feel bad he got detained, but after 9-11 homeland security can not take any risks. Has everyone forgotten that we are still at war? Unfortunately, there will be inconveniences, even for celebrities and diplomats. I am sure everyone would rather have an inconvenience than have a plane blown up.
Ann Cook | Aug 19, 2009 | Reply
@Ann Cook: Homeland Security doesn’t actually make us safer. After the nationalization of security, weapons have still gone through undetected, while innocents are absurdly delayed and abused. The shoebomber was not stopped by the government, but by flight crew and passengers. All government can do is try to stop the last attack, but attacks never repeat themselves exactly. Under the Constitution, this is not a proper role of the federal government. The no-fly list has ballooned to over one million names and the current administration wants to use it to disarm everyone who happens to be on it, out of accident or because they were political opponents of Bush or Obama. This is not just an inconvenience. It’s tyranny.
Anthony Gregory | Aug 19, 2009 | Reply