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"Here we have one of many incidents where a uniformed representative of the United States government is giving the clear impression that they perceive Islamic b
by petsos 16y ago
"Here we have one of many incidents where a uniformed representative of the United States government is giving the clear impression that they perceive Islamic beliefs is inherently suspect."
As an outsider (neither Muslim nor American), I have to ask: how is that an impression and not a policy? The customs agents are government employees that, I assume, are ordered to act that way.
- wdewind 16y agoI think the "uniformed," implies policy.
- nostromo 16y agoThe "US Government" (fed, state, local) employs over 20 million people. And that doesn't include contractors. http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=228 http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=228 Put in comparison, that's the population of the 18 smallest states, and about ten times larger than WalMart. Now, I'm not sure if this person was acting based on the rules of the State Department or not, but it's easy to see how not every employee of the government might be acting according to policy 100% of the time.
- potatolicious 16y agoAs someone who crosses the border frequently, and knows many others who do also, I can assure you, this sort of "not acting according to policy" is a fairly regular event. This is not an isolated incident, in fact it's not even infrequent.
- jbooth 16y agoYeah, but border guards are a self-selecting group. A friend of mine served in the IDF, he said about 80% of the worst treatment of Palestinians he saw came at the hands of the border guards, not infantry or special forces. These are people who, given the choice, explicitly chose the security position with the highest ratio of bullying people to being shot at.