Religious leaders discuss body scanners with DHS
Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders met with DHS officials to discuss the privacy aspects of whole-body scanning; Muslim religious organizations, the Pope, and Orthodox Jewish authorities declared body scanners to be in violation of their respective religions’ modesty strictures, especially for women, and urged their followers to opt for pat-downs instead
Religious leaders met today with DHS officials to discuss their concerns about the use of airport body scanners that reveal the outlines of bodies. Detroit Free Press’s Niraj Warikoo writes that the meeting came after a Muslim group based in Indiana, the Fiqh Council of North America, issued an Islamic edict, a fatwa, that said going through body scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty. The fatwa urges Muslims not to go through the scanners.
Margo Schlanger, the new civil rights head for DHS, announced the meeting during a discussion Wednesday in Dearborn with Arab-Americans, Chaldeans, and Muslims.
Warikoo writes that Thursday’s meeting included Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders. Pope Benedict XVI reportedly voiced concern last month about the use of the body scanners, according to British media reports. Some Jewish leaders are also concerned.
Jim Fotenos, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said that Detroit Metro Airport has two body scanners, with 43 units in 20 airports. Some 450 body scanners will be deployed in U.S. airports this year, 150 by summer, he said. TSA plans to deploy a total of 950 body scanners by the end of 2011.
