Arabic T-Shirt incident comes to a close with a $240,000 check

by Scott Carmichael on

It has been 3 years since we reported about Raed Jarrar. This US citizen passed through security at JFK in 2006, got a secondary security search, and was then apprehended at the gate by an airport cop and a JetBlue employee.

See, Raed committed the “horrible” crime of wearing a T-Shirt with some Arabic words. The words on his shirt did not translate to “terrorist,” nor did they warn people that he was going to hijack their flight. The T-Shirt merely said “we will not be silenced,” in Arabic and English.

JetBlue eventually allowed Raed to board his flight, but not until he agreed to cover up his T-Shirt — and to sit in the back of the plane.

Passengers had reportedly complained to the gate staff that the T-Shirt made them feel uncomfortable, and they compared it to someone walking into a bank with a T-Shirt saying “I am a robber.”

Raed finally got some justice, when the TSA and JetBlue awarded him $240,000 in damages. Raed was assisted in his case by the ACLU.

In a day and age where people get paranoid for all the wrong reasons, I’m hoping this incident reminds everyone that not everyone who looks like a Muslim is a terrorist, and not everything in Arabic is warning of impending doom.

You can read more about the case, including a video clip with more details of the incident on the ACLU web site.

Daily deal – SeV performance T-Shirt 25% discount on 2 or more

by Scott Carmichael on

Today’s daily deal is for what can only be referred as “the perfect travel T-Shirt”.

The SeV cotton T-Shirt features not one, but three discreet pockets, with room for your iPod, mobile phone and other gadgets. The iPod pocket even has the patented SeV personal area network, with wire conduits and earphone loops!

The shirt is made of 100% prewashed no-shrink cotton and is available in three different colors (black, white and olive).

These T-Shirts normally retail for $25 each, but if you apply coupon code NEWTEES, you’ll get 25% off 2 or more (making the total price for 2 T-Shirts just $37.50).

Shipping is a very reasonable $5 and you’ll find the product in sizes S-XXL.

International Translation Shirt For the Lazy Traveler

by Justin Glow on

There’s another shirt out on the market designed to make life easier on the road. We talked about this earlier with the Traveler’s Phrase Book T-Shirt, and this International Translation shirt from Threadless is no different.

Never again will you need to worry about taking the time to learn a few common phrases in a foreign language when traveling abroad. With this shirt, you’re free to mindlessly jab at the drawings on your chest when there’s something you want. Communicating with someone — building a relationship, however short — is old news. Now you can breeze through any country without ever interacting with a local.

After all, you know what you want, and you want it now.

Traveler’s Phrase Book T-shirt

by Justin Glow on

This company is selling an overpriced t-shirt designed to be worn by travelers who are in a country whose inhabitants don’t speak their native tongue. The idea is that instead of attempting to communicate with someone who knows where the bathroom is, for instance, you annoyingly point to the international symbol for bathroom on your shirt. Other symbols include hospital, airplane, bedding (for hotel), telephone, restaurant, money exchange, and Internet cafe (or post office, whatever those things are).

This can surely make life on the road in a foreign country easier — but is that what we want? It seems a bit disrespectful and caveman-like (no offense, Geico guys) to walk around in a foreign country pointing to things on your shirt when you want something instead of taking a few minutes of your time to learn these common phrases in your host’s language. [via]