For airport screeners, more training about Muslims =0AAs pilgrims return fr= om the hajj, the TSA gives its workers a refresher on how to treat Muslims = at US security checkpoints. =0A=0ABy Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The = Christian Science Monitor =0ANEW YORK =0A =0ASay you're a security screener= at the airport. You notice a large group of people wearing white robes, sp= eaking a strange language. The women have head scarves and the men long bea= rds. They look nervous. One of them is holding a Koran. Another appears to = be praying. What do you do?=0A =0AAccording to the Transportation Security = Administration (TSA), simply assume they're devout Muslims returning from t= he annual hajj in Mecca.=0A =0ADuring the next few weeks, as many as 20,000= American Muslims will be returning to the United States from their pilgrim= age to Saudi Arabia. The TSA has ramped up cultural-awareness training for = all 43,000 of its screeners. The goal: to remind screeners what to expect f= rom devout Muslims and how to go about screening them so it's in concert wi= th their religious beliefs.=0A =0AArab-American and Muslim-American leaders= are applauding the effort. But they say it's part of a much-needed larger = cultural and political conversation about Islam and Arab culture that can h= elp the nation as it heals from the aftereffects of 9/11.=0A =0A"Their effo= rts are a modest but important beginning," says Jack Shaheen, professor eme= ritus of mass communications at Southern Illinois University. "But until su= ch time that we react to the vilification of and discrimination against Ara= bs in the same way we react to the vilification of others like Jews, blacks= , and Hispanics, I'm not going to go dancing in the streets."=0A =0AThe 9/1= 1 attacks ushered in a new era for the nation's Arabs and Muslims. Many of = the almost 7 million who have lived in the country for years, if not genera= tions, suddenly felt suspect simply because of their religion or the way th= ey looked. A poll conducted last year by the Council on American-Islamic Re= lations found that almost half of Americans have a negative view of Islam, = even though 60 percent say they're not knowledgeable about it. More than 1 = in 4 believes such statements as: "The Muslim religion teaches violence and= hatred."=0A =0AHeightened sensitivities at airports =0A =0AAnd it's at the= airports, with the intense focus on security, that many American Muslims a= nd Arab-Americans say they are more keenly aware of those misperceptions.= =0A =0A"After 9/11 things were bad, but they weren't as bad as they are now= ," says Rafat Arain, a dentist and mother of four from Brookfield, Wis.=0A = =0ADr. Arain, who's lived in the US for 30 years, wears a head scarf known = as the hijab. Every time she's flown in the past five years, she's been tak= en aside for extra screening, whether she was traveling to Europe, Pakistan= , or Saudi Arabia for the hajj. She believes, in part, that's because of he= r head covering. Immediately after 9/11, she says, she understood the extra= scrutiny: The country had been traumatized. Now, she's simply come to expe= ct it.=0A =0AA year ago, when she was at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, she real= ized that time for one of her five daily prayers was running out. She went = to a corner and quietly began to pray. A few minutes later, she noticed a s= ecurity guard standing at her side.=0A =0A"He didn't say anything to me. I = finished my prayer, then I said 'Hi' to him and just walked away," she says= . "But I could tell the people around were scared of me, and that's not goo= d for us or good for our children."=0A =0AIn its hajj training refresher, t= he TSA is reminding officers that devout Muslims pray five times a day, and= to expect it. The TSA also maintains that it does not in any way target in= dividuals based on their background or religious affiliation.=0A"Our model = looks only at behavior and in a way is the antidote to racial profiling," s= ays Christopher White, a TSA spokesman.=0A =0AHe also says the TSA and othe= r law-enforcement agencies are working hard to ensure that no one's civil r= ights are violated, which is why officials believed the hajj merited additi= onal training.=0A =0A"We expect a large number of pilgrims, and the hajj tr= aining involves providing our security officers reminders about how to scre= en individuals with head coverings [and] our policies concerning the transp= ort of holy water and other Muslim religious practices, like praying," says= Mr. White.=0A =0AThe Council on American-Islamic Relations applauds the sp= ecial attention. It says it will be checking airports around the country du= ring the next few weeks to ensure all goes smoothly.=0A =0AComplaints about= detentions =0A =0ABut at the same time, the civil rights organization says= it's seen an increase in reports about perceived discrimination against Mu= slims, or people who look Muslim. Many of the complaints concern incidents = such as individuals being routinely detained for several hours at the airpo= rt and being asked intimate questions about their beliefs - whether they pr= ay and at which mosque. "These are things that really aren't the business o= f security personnel," says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on Am= erican-Islamic Relations.=0A =0AMuslim-American leaders say their goal is t= o reach out to all Americans so they can understand Islam as a religion of = peace, respect for neighbors, and devotion to God.=0A =0A"We're afraid of w= hat we don't understand, and these people look different from us. They have= different sounding names," says Nawar Shora, director of diversity and law= -enforcement outreach at the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in= Washington. "In the post-9/11 era, there's an absolute need for the averag= e Joe and the average Jane to be able to look at their neighbor that looks = like one of those brown people and know that different isn't necessarily ba= d."=0A=0A=0A =0A___________________________________________________________= _________________________=0ADo you Yahoo!?=0AEveryone is raving about the a= ll-new Yahoo! Mail beta.=0Ahttp://new.mail.yahoo.com