Why would someone like you want to travel anyway?

It's that time of year when most of us Canadians have had just about enough of "wind chill factors" and puffy overcoats.

In other words, it is the time when we start planning escapes to somewhere warm and sunny.

I'm no exception. In fact, later this week I'll be flying to a warmer locale, which I'm looking forward to except for one thing — having to go through airport security.

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the extra security measures surrounding airline travel have been irritating for everyone. But for some of us, especially some of us Muslims, it has become downright painful.

We are looked upon with more suspicion by the customs officers, which means that if flying itself doesn't make us anxious, this added concern that we might be considered a terrorist makes the whole process that much more uncomfortable.

The same umbrella

But while I am frustrated with the airlines and their security personnel, I don't really blame them.

Over the past nine years, the overwhelming majority of attacks and attempted attacks on airlines have been carried out by Muslims — Islamic fundamentalists to be more precise.

And while most of us Muslims believe that our Islam is completely different from what these monsters believe in, it doesn't change the fact that we fall under the same religious umbrella.

Now, of course, with the attempted airline bombing on Christmas Day by an al-Qaeda-trained Nigerian man with an explosive in his crotch, all that anxiety is right back up to the surface for all of us.

In the immediate wake of the attack, flights were delayed for long periods — in Christmas week no less — and carry-ons were severely limited. 

But even if the extra precautions have now abated somewhat, the fear, confusion and chaos that were caused by that failed attack are now something the rest of us Muslims will have to pay for, because of the increased call for racial profiling.

Prime candidate

As a South Asian Muslim born in Karachi, Pakistan, I'm a prime candidate for racial profiling at airports.

It probably doesn't help that my last name is that of a well-known and highly controversial Palestinian political party. (Though I guess it could be worse if my last name was Hamas.)

And believe me, I've experienced my fair share of scrutiny at airports because of the way I look and the religion I belong to.

Normal questioning is not a problem, but I have been insulted and humiliated while crossing the border from Windsor into Detroit and when flying into New York City.

Oddly enough, though, my worst experience happened in Poland.

A few years ago, I was travelling with friends to Krakow. I was the only person of colour on the flight and, when we arrived, the only person of colour standing in the long lines to get through customs.

Eventually the customs officer waved me towards her booth and asked for my passport. I handed it to her. She looked at my city of birth — Karachi — then looked up at me. Looked back down at the city's name. Back up at me.

"Where were you born?" she barked. I said "Karachi, Pakistan. You see that on my passport." She then told me to step to the side.

Every other person was waived through customs to the baggage claim, including my two travel companions, but I was held back. Then I was questioned, grilled really, for what felt like an eternity by four customs officers, surrounded by three guards with rifles.

They asked me "How long have you been in Canada? Why did your family move there? What work do you do? What did your family do in Pakistan? What religion are you?" and, my personal favourite, "Why would someone like you want to come to Poland?"

Someone like you

Now, any person of colour in the Western world knows what that "someone like you" comment means.

Against all common sense, I lost my temper and began to question the firing squad.

"What do you mean someone like me? Are you only asking me these questions because I was born in Pakistan? Because I noticed you didn't ask any other person on the flight these questions."

This was a mistake.

I was asked to follow one of the rifle-toting security guards into an office for further questioning. I suddenly had images of orange jumpsuits and rows of Muslims chained together in some God-awful Polish prison cell.

Just then, one of my friends came back and told the customs officers that I was with him. For some reason, the word of a white European-looking man was good enough and they asked me to get my baggage.

Needless to say, I have no desire to ever visit Krakow again.

Not all the same

But despite this experience, and the other incidents I was forced to undergo, I have to say — very hesitantly — ok, go ahead and profile me.

It's not ideal, in fact it is absolutely unfair, but we aren't living in fair and ideal times.

I understand all the concerns about civil liberties and I know there is a chance that racism will raise its ugly head if racial profiling is sanctioned in any kind of official way.

And I wish we weren't reduced to looking at each other primarily through the prism of ethnic group and religious identity.

But if the inconveniencing of a few thousand people like me can prevent a future attack and the murder of innocent people going about their business then it is a small price to pay for the greater security of all of us together.

Racial profiling on its own won't solve the problem, of course.

The would-be "shoe bomber" in 2001 was an American, a Western-looking convert to Islam. And it probably wouldn't be very hard for a sophisticated terrorist organization to create a false identity, with a non-Muslim background and appearance, for one of its operatives.

So obviously our security will have to be more diligent and more sophisticated itself on a variety of fronts.

But if racial profiling means that our security people will be focusing more on individual histories than X-ray machines and that someone like me will have to spend more time in lineups and will be singled out for special treatment from time to time, then I am prepared to live with that.

If nothing else, it will show that we Muslims are not all the same.