A Historical View of Airport Security and Discrimination
In today’s society, keeping people safe is a priority, and airport safety is no exception. Aviation terrorism is “a political act against civil aviation carried out by non-state actors who systematically target civilians and intentionally use violence in order to create terror ...” (Duchesneau and Langlois,2017). However, the effectiveness of airport security is not always agreed upon, and hasn’t been throughout history. In the earlier days of airports, they “consisted of a few tents and an airfield, remnants of air travel’s military beginnings” (Adey,2004), but overtime, new technology and methods have altered the security among United States airports. It brings up the question: “How have changes in airport security in the United States affected Muslims?” With controversy surrounding security practices at airports and people targeted, it’s important to understand how these people feel. Furthermore, the current political climate and the isolation and ostracism of minorities, has led to a divide in American society. President Donald Trump has expressed a sense of “islamic hatred”, which has affected immigration and the overall values of Americans. To further examine this question, it will be researched through a historical lens to see how airport security has changed over time and affected Muslims.

An important milestone of airport security was September 11th, 2001, when “over 3,000 lives were lost in New York City, Washington, D.C, and Somerset County, Pennsylvania, due, in part, to ineffective airport security.”(Reddick,2004); in response to this tragic event, former President George W. Bush, passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA). This act established the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which consolidated security efforts inside the Department of Transportation (DOT)”(Blalock et al., 2007). The most important change was “the federalization of passenger security screening at all U.S. commercial
airports by November 19, 2002, and the requirement to begin screening all checked baggage by December 31, 2002”(Blalock et al.,2007). This meant that every commercial airport in the United States had to screen passengers and their luggage. As a result, all commercial airports in the country were unified, creating a “status quo” for security. However, it affected Muslims differently since, “the scanners’ detection capabilities must be carefully limited in order to protect individual privacy interests”(Simbro,2014), unfortunately the privacy of Muslims’ doesn’t seem to be a primary concern. The authors: Garrick Blalock and his colleagues are not acclaimed in airport security and policy. Since none of these authors specialize in the subject matter, they are less reliable, but since the authors do research for their respective fields, the research obtained for the source is reliable.

To examine the effect of the change in thinking after 9/11 on airport security, the perspective of an affected family will be developed. The Irfan Family was on their way to Orlando, Florida when they were asked to leave AirTran flight 175. They were asked to leave because “two teenage girls aboard the aircraft reported a conversation between Atif Irfan and his wife regarding the "safest seats" on an airplane”(Kleiner,2010), which was seen as a privacy concern. This source presents three perspectives on the issue of Muslims and their treatment after changes in airport security; the first being the Irfan family, “all of South Asian descent,consisted of three young boys ages two, four and seven, two adult brothers, their wives, a sister-in-law, and a family friend...”(Kleiner, 2010). Their religion decided the outcome of the situation, as Yevgenia S. Kleiner, a New York litigator, puts it, “As the experiences of the Irfan family and countless others demonstrate, the TSA's current methods of ensuring passengers' safety often result in unnecessary delays and examinations prompted by loose directives and unconstitutional
prejudices.”(2010). This brings up the second perspective, the two teenage girls that brought up the concern, which could also refer to most of the White, American, public. The events of 9/11, “introduced a fear of terrorism into Americans' daily lives and inspired in many a suspicion of immigrants of Muslim and Middle Eastern descent.”(Kleiner, 2010). This is the grave reality of how events and changes in airport security has also shifted people’s thinking. Alternatively, the event in Fort Lauderdale on January 6th 2017, shows that Muslims are not the only people responsible for airport violence; thus airport security may be focused on the wrong culprits. Ruwantissa Abeyratne, PhD, has worked at the International Civil Aviation Organization for 23 years. Abeyratne states, “Terminal 2 of Fort-Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport was the scene of a mass shooting perpetrated by a mentally deranged passenger who had arrived from Alaska.”(2017).Looking at the third perspective, the Transportation Security Administration(TSA), it is seen that they violate the rights of those like the Irfan Family in order to support people like the two teenage girls. The TSA is comprised of federal employees which means that “implementing directives aimed at ensuring the nation's security, TSA employees, and thus the federal government, have been accused of discriminating against minority travelers in violation of constitutionally protected rights.”(Kleiner,2010).

While the incident on September 11th, 2001, greatly impacted airport security, it had evolved before that event. Before the postwar period, people who weren’t boarding a plane were free to roam around the airport and no one was expected to follow set rules. Anke Ortlepp, a Professor of British and North American History at the University of Kassel who researches the history of travel and tourism, explains that: in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Eastern Europeans began seeking asylum in the United States after World War II, and hijackings increased; this led  to “pre-flight screening that included the use of metal detectors”(2009). For example, on November 1, 1955, a flight from Denver to Seattle exploded, because a man named John Graham wanted to collect on his mother’s insurance policies. Similarly, in January 1960, a suicide bomber killed everyone on a National Airlines plane.(Ortlepp,2009). These incidents led to increased demands for better airport security, and the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) was founded. Later, as a response to people like these two men, Congress established the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, which combated aviation hazards such as “...midair collisions caused by an enormous expansion of commercial and military air transportation in the postwar period”(Ortlepp,2009). The FAA was responsible for the creation and promotion of airport security regulations in order to combat these problems, so they expanded security by introducing behavior profiles for the first time.(Ortlepp,2009). However, the FAA, TSA, and Department of Homeland Security, now utilize machines for airport security and “no attention is devoted to the security staff responsible for their utilisation.”(Eldar,2010), who are usually subjective.

All the sources presented in this examination of airport security, scrutinize how airport security has changed over time and how it affected minorities, such as Muslims.The first source examines a stark change in policy after 9/11, while “Airport Security and the Limits of Mobility: The Case of the United States”, examines a gradual change due to a steady increase in violence and hijackings over time. While the sources agree that airport security has gotten safer over time, they examine perspectives in which it is clear that airport security has invaded the privacy and constitutional rights of Muslims. For example, the “Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agencies are legally permitted to profile based on race, faith and national origin.”(Sprusansky,2016). The United States must review their
standards for airport security, and evaluate how many people they are robbing of constitutional rights. Guidelines should be created to ensure that security officers are not targeting certain ethnicities, but that they have probable cause for their actions. Targeting Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent is wrong, and it certainly has no place in an airport where everyone has an equal right to safety.