US Anti-Terrorist Measures Tarry Muslim Travelers Behind

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, July 10, 2003

US Anti-Terrorist Measures Tarry Muslim Travelers Behind

After the Iraqi War the international situation has changed dramatically and anti-terrorist operations remain tight. The US customs are particularly "concerned" with Muslim travelers.

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The yearly summer holiday has come now, and many rich Arabs and Muslims have begun to ponder where to spend this year's hottest days. In the past Europe and America, North Africa and Southeast Asia were all popular repairs. But this year things are different.

After the Iraqi War the international situation has changed dramatically and anti-terrorist operations remain tight. The US customs are particularly "concerned" with Muslim travelers. Some media and travel companies in Arab countries have recently warned their nationals against US tours for business, visits to relatives or for sightseeing. "Don't go to the US unless absolutely necessary," they said, "for you will be greeted by a long string of anti-terrorist questions on the investigation paper of their customs!" Now for Muslim travelers it's more difficult to step onto the US soil.

The warning is apparently well grounded. Drawing lessons from the "September 11" incident, the US congress has demanded strengthening the entry examination on people from certain countries and regions, and security, intelligence and immigration departments made a regulation last year that foreigners from Muslim regions must answer 33 questions when entering the US.

Some of these questions cannot help seeming na?ve, from the first question "birth date" to "are you linked to terrorist activities?" More detailed and irksome questions follow as whether Muslim travelers "possess weapons, explosives or chemical materials" and whether they "ever engaged in terrorist activities or ready to conduct certain terrorist activities".

After the ordeal a few hefty fellows, together with same hefty dogs showing their shining teeth, would plough into all your baggage and make an awful mess of them. Whoever could bear such a treatment?

However, even safety measures as tight as these didn't bring a sense of security to the US. After the Afghan and Iraqi wars, although the old "Al-Qaeda" organization had been seriously damaged, new anti-US terrorist groups in all forms sprang up, and their activities in hot regions showed a tendency of spreading out. The White House has been racking its brains on strengthening anti-terrorist measures and lots of them only turned out a waste of money and manpower.

Actually terrorism is just like a disease that must be treated from the root. If the US could handle the Middle East issue in a fair way and treat Arab and Muslim countries equally well, maybe its security and intelligence departments could be spared such laborious work and customs staff free from worries.

By PD Online Staff Member Li Heng

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