It Is Not A Crime To Know Or Study Arabic

Apparently someone needs to remind the TSA and the FBI of this fact, as they just arrested a college student for traveling with Arabic flashcards.

I own the flashcards George was detained for and while I didn't take mine with me on my DC trip, I did almost take one of my Arabic primers I read each night. I didn't because I had a friend with me and I didn't trust the TSA not to be morons. Looks like I was right.

When traveling on holiday through Israel on the way to Jordan in 1994, I was warned to leave all study materials back in Cairo or risk heavy interrogation and strip searches by the Israeli Defense Force. A student one year before me had this happen and it was a fresh lesson--absurd as it was. (The language of Arabic wasn't illegal in any country then, either.) Is this what we've become?

Here's a picture of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in downtown D.C. No wonder I got the chills walking by it every day I was there. It wasn't because of the snow.




Pretty scary looking, I know.