Moderate Pakistani Conflicted with New Airport Security Measures

Samra Habib is a writer and editor living in Toronto. At the age of 10, she and her family were branded as “non-Muslim” by religious extremists for falling out of the Sunni Shiite majority in Pakistan. This prompted their leaving Lahore for Canada where they found religious freedom and the ability to travel with a passport that did not specify religion. “[W]e believed that we had left the fear of religion-based persecution and discrimination behind us. Our Canadian passport was our new chance in life.”

This week Samra expressed outrage in the NewYorkTimes over new security measures requiring increased screening for persons originating from any of 14 “state sponsors of terrorism” traveling into the U.S. In Samra’s case, her birthplace (Pakistan) overrides her Canadian passport. The action was prompted by the U.S. government after Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 last month. He cleared security in both Nigeria and the Netherlands before boarding the commercial airliner to Detroit.

Samra suggests moderate Pakistanis like herself will interpret the government’s actions as a conflict of values and an inability to spare the “dignity” of any of those looking to the West to escape persecution at home. This echoes the American Civil Liberties Union opinion urging for security systems based on evidence and “individualized suspicion” which is more consistent with American values. Others however, consider Samra’s perspective, “shrill and out of proportion,” and that at times, “security must trump human rights.”