There is a whole host of depressing reports about airline security, terrorist threats, diverted flights and increased fear and suspicion of Asian men, specifically those of Muslim descent. Buried amidst these stories of real and imaginary threats, paranoia, persecution and profiling, I came across a slightly bizarre and rather comical story which indicates that at least some men are more afraid of their mothers than of Homeland Security.
"CHICAGO — Cook County prosecutors say a 29-year-old man traveling with his mother desperately didn’t want her to know he’d packed a sexual aid for their trip to Turkey.
So he told security it was a bomb, officials said.
Madin Azad Amin, 29, of Skokie, was stopped Aug. 16 at O’Hare International Airport after guards found an object in his baggage that resembled a grenade, prosecutors said.
When officers asked him to identify it, Amin said it was a bomb, said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Lorraine Scaduto. He later told officials he’d lied about the item because his mother was nearby, Scaduto said.
He’s been charged with felony disorderly conduct, said Andrew Conklin, a spokesman with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
Amin is due back in court Sept. 13. He told the Chicago Sun-Times that security officials did not give him a chance to explain the misunderstanding and that he would never use the word "bomb" while going through a security checkpoint."
On a more serious note, Muslim men may be facing real problems not just in the air but on the ground too.
Muslim men earn less post-Sept. 11
Reuters News ServiceNEW YORK — The earnings of Arab and Muslim men working in the United States dropped about 10 percent in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a new study.
The study, to be published in the Journal of Human Resources, measured changes in wages of first- and second-generation immigrants, from countries with predominantly Arab or Muslim populations from September 1997 to September 2005.
The average wage was approximately $20 an hour before the attacks in 2001 and dropped by $2 an hour after them, said Robert Kaestner, co-author of the study and a University of Illinois at Chicago professor of economics.
That drop persisted through 2004 but showed signs of abating in 2005, he said.
"I was surprised," Kaestner said. "We see an immediate and significant connection between personal prejudice and economic harm."
The study looked at 4,300 Arab and Muslim men, ages 21-54, from the 20 U.S. states where 85 percent of all Arab and Muslim Americans live. …"
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