A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling #73 ``did we really need to know the kind of junk you carry with you? and why are you making such a fuss over the fact that the security people become alert when they see a young man of middle eastern/desi type looks?``

What junk? Condoms? Dont you use them? As for the ``fuss`` you allude to, let me do a tahmed on you: please cut and paste for me from the article where I have made a fuss of profiling. I even went ahead and called it a ``lovers` quarrel``. Its never too late in life to start making sense, Sultan of circular logic :)

Avkrishna # 69 - please dont take each one of my comment seriously. some are meant in jest. regards.

A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling #54 - and here comes the master of circular logic! he is decrying the racial profiling of latinos who are busy doing racial profiling of passengers.

#52 - no offence, but you have to be at least a green card holder to elicit a response from me for your stupid posts...I dont have much time for headshaking h-1B visa holders.

#50 - It turns out that when we muslims find something that is not to our liking, we stick around and try to change it...unlike injuns who simply bend over. When we came to India and noticed how nude people were living on trees along with monkeys, we didn`t run back to Arabia. We stuck around and alhamdolillah, today we have nearly 160 million muslims in India alone and nude charlatans like Gandhi are exceptions rather than a rule.

A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling dost # 46 ``I am being routinely sent to secondary immigration for a more thorough check-up. Why? Because my passport was stolen six years ago and I therefore fall into a group earmarked for more intensive inspection.``

Dost sahib, this is different than being profiled due to your genetic, religious, ethnic make-up. I am sure many european canadians, who have had their passports stolen in the past, are given the same treatment as you.

A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling #44 - ``what? Jews flew planes into the Rheistag (sp)?``

No. But they did torch it. Now go munch on that for a while.

#42 - thanks burpy. I wrote this during that same flight...with few spelling / sentence structure touches afterwards...so yeah, it was straight from heart :(

jang #41 - The thing that freaks me out about Dulles airport is the grisly sight of Sikhs working there. They have near monopoly on everything from baggage screening to food court and souvenir shops

A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling Urstruly #36 - ``I think almost all Arab airlines are best in service and hospitality``

I would rate east asian airlines (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia) to be the best in the world – on both domestic and international routes. Swiss and Lufthansa are the best European airlines.

Three middle eastern airlines have fast emerged as top contenders – Qatar, Emirates (from Dubai), and Ettihad (from Abu Dhabi). The business class of Ettihad is the best I have ever experienced. The seating arrangement in its business class is such that you have your own mini cubicle to yourself, with complete privacy from passengers sitting on either side of you. They served halva poori and murgh cholay for breakfast from Islamabad to Abu Dhabi flight. Imagine that!

And lets not even talk about the quality of flight attendants. I am not exaggerating when I say that flight attendants on Qatar, Emirates, and Ettihad airlines (mostly egyptian, lebanese, oriental, and east european) are the prettiest of all airlines and their service in business class is so good that it is the closest a passenger can get to making love, without actually making love. Once when she did not have the entry I had requested, the attendant was so apologetic that I had to actually give her a hug to comfort her. Go figure!

A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling dost_mittar #35 ``All profiling is based on statistical probability``

dost sahib, i cannot believe you actually wrote this with full sincerity! When you start profiling, you get on a slipperly slope that can lead you to who knows where. If your line is followed then Hitler was right in profiling jews, since statistical probablity at that time indicated that jews were likely to capitalize on German misery after WW1.

Also, there is a difference between target marketing and profiling. One is to promote a product or service, the other is to group-punish an entire segment, because doing so is politically expedient. Your reasoning regarding muslim profiling would hold water once profiling is extended to blacks, latinos, jews and whites for their perceived negative traits as well.

A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling scoutNasshee, Samina, cobra, iron thank you :)

hamdim # 17 - Why did it sadden you? I heard in economy class of short-hop flights within US you dont even get pretzles anymore. And what passes for an attendant`s smile in first class, economy class passengers have to even make do without it ~shudders~

A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling chaltahai # 7 ``you are equating violent crime with terrorism. latter being a subset. Americans also have a higher chance of dying from heart disease. what is your point?``

oye, terrorism and violent crime is something someone does to you. heart disease is something you do to yourself.

it is H-1B visa holders like you that make me a firm believer in profiling all H-1B visa holders for stupidity...

A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling dost_mittar # 3 ``as the cliche goes, while 99% of Muslims/Arabs are innocent``

indeed we live in a world where cliches, rather than human rights rule our life. Imagine you use this defense in court that while 99% of the sorority girls were god fearing and church going, it was that 1% of one night standers who really mean ``yes`` when they say ``no`` that made you force her into having sex with you.

My point being that profiling is ``group punishment`` and if we must pay for the sins of others, then wouldnt you think that the profiling of Daniel Pearl (the murdered jewish journalist in Pakistan) as a palestinian child killer was fair?

Mohammad Yousuf: A tribute mantolives # 30 writes ``Brilliant Youhanna!``

Manto, as you very well know that Muhammad Yousuf has converted to Islam, much to your chagrin. In the process he has also changed his name from Yousuf Youhanna to Muhammad Yousuf. But your insistence at referring to him by a name he does not want to use is highly disprectful and bad manners. Muhammad Yousuf wants to be referred to by his muslim name, and we should accord him that courtsey.

It would be as if we continue to refer to you as a mirzaee, even though you have changed from mirzaee to sunni to ismaili.

Regards

A Trip Down Moscow Lanes naqshbandi # 17 ``He said Moscow State University was fantastic and that living conditions were actually v. good despite Western propoganda``

although i have rarely seen any western propaganda about russian universities, i would say that I have met some amazingly brilliant students from russia. they are some of the sharpest people you find in the fields of maths, science and finance. despite the downward spiral that russia has been in for a while, they still seem to have sustained a decent standard in higher education.

also, i have learned that during the 60s and 70s quite a significant number of pakistanis would go to russian universities for studies. cost of studies in russia were / are much cheaper than in europe and north america. I think that trend fell off after the invasion of afghanistan and the ensuing hostilities between pakistan and russia.

but after seeing what sharapova has done to my emotional well being, i am beginning to give benefit of doubt to communist ideology.

A Trip Down Moscow Lanes sandhu #8 ``if only you had more time you could have landed a Russian girlfriend.``

actually, I would put it the other way around...if only he had more time, some russian damsel could have landed shobig payee :(

A Trip Down Moscow Lanes What I wanted to say with my example of Sheraton, and which I think I left off completely, is that usually hotel names are written in both english and cyrillic. And once you match all alphabets of Sheraton with their cyrillic alphabets, and you repeat that with some other famous icons, within few minutes you will have your key that you can use for all the road signs which are typically only in cyrillic.

A Trip Down Moscow Lanes ``From then on, I made a note to approach only the lively and lovely young Russian women for that purpose. And boy, did they oblige! ``

hahaha...I am sure they did. Probably one of them looked u in the eyes and said ``Shobig ji, maiN tay jammee tavanooN rah dassan laee see`` :)

Nice narrative. Although I get this feeling that you did not have enough time on your hand to do more sight seeing. And yes, this cyrillic alphabet is a pain. All I remember from my experiences is that their ``P`` is our ``R``. Actually the best way to decipher if you suddenly find yourself in a cyrillic country (and I think there are only 3 such countries - Russia, Belarus, and Bulgaria) is to look around where you are standing and see if you can spot a hotel, say Sheraton. Usually, cyrillic alphabets are one to one match of english alphbets. This way within a few minutes you can form your key to all road signs. The easiest way of course is to download it from the net, but that takes prior thinking:)

But you missed on one important detail of your trip...your run into girls who were about to blossom :)

Dilemmas of Creative Children #5 ``What was your dream as a teenager?``

Dr. Sahib, the only dreams that I still remember from my teenage years were the very creative wet dreams. Does that make me a bad person? :(

Muslims ‘Unveiled’ Granted, the debate about veil is a useless debate and you can always count on Salim Chauhan to use the full force of his verbal power on all useless topics.

But I think the real issue is this: Why does the debate start and end on how women dress? Why should we not take it beyond women`s clothing and question the very concept of clothing? I understand that Salim puts on his pants because he needs to hide the bite marks on his butt from previous night`s sexathon with Shoresahib, but still, we are being hypocrite...and petty, when we question some articles of clothing and not the others.

All these anti-nudist laws that exist in much of the world regarding ``public indecency`` are frankly curbing on people`s liberties to dress however they like. But does anyone speak up for them? NOOOOOO!