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US Muslims, Sikhs welcome change in airport security screenings

Muslim and Sikh groups have praised the Transportation Security Administration in the United States for rolling back screening rules on passengers arriving from 14 primarily Islamic countries, even as some worry that profiling will continue, reports Ecumenical News International.

The new rules had been enacted after a Nigerian Muslim man tried and failed to explode a bomb onboard a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Detroit on Christmas Day. Civil liberty groups said the rules amounted to ethnic and religious profiling, Religion News Service reports.

The suspect in that case, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had not been subjected to extra screening despite being listed in a government database of suspected or known terrorists. Under revamped policies announced by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on 2 April, international passengers will be compared against intelligence data based on physical descriptions or travel patterns.

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TAGS: USA Muslim and Sikh groups Transportation Security Administration screening rules airport security screenings

[04/08/2010]

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