Detroit is a long way from Cairo

Following the failed attempt of a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to detonate an explosive device on a plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas day, the United States added 11 countries to the TSA’s list of those that  will trigger enhanced screening. (Article).

It’s hard to see this as anything but profiling. So as the fear factor is elevated, Islamic culture and practice is once again wildly misconstrued. Widening the breach, a referendum recently passed in Switzerland bans the construction of new minarets, (which the EU says violates human rights law); and in France, the debate over whether to ban the Burqa or the Niqab have added to the growing discord.

This satire of the existing color-coded terror warning system addresses the prejudice associated with our lack of even a basic understanding of Islam, and uses the continuum of Muslim veils to illustrate comfort levels of non-Muslim Americans and Europeans–most of whom are familiar only with the Hijab or head scarf, and the Burqa.

The Christian Science Monitor addressed the proposed French ban in this reasoned editorial.