7-Year-Old On His Way to Disney World, ID'd as a Terrorist

Posted by Richard Blair at 12:00 PM on August 21, 2007.

This post, written by Richard Blair, originally appeared on All Spin Zone

A Muslim family had their trip to Disney World interrupted on both ends because their seven year old son was flagged by the "no fly" list. Sometimes, common sense needs to trump bureaucratic snafus.

Some of the stories about people mistakenly ending up on the "no fly" list in the U.S. are legendary. Even Sen. Ted Kennedy has been held up at an airport due to his name (or a similar one) being on someone's terrorism list.

A seven year old kid heading for Disney, though? That's kind of hard to swallow. Even in this day and age of increased airport security and monitoring, some common sense needs to occasionally prevail.

For seven-year-old Javaid Iqbal, the holiday to Florida was a dream trip to reward him for doing well at school. But he was left in tears after he was stopped repeatedly at airports on suspicion of being a terrorist.

The security alerts were triggered because Javaid shares his name with a Pakistani man deported from the US, prompting staff at three airports to question his family about his identity.

The family even missed their flight home from the U.S. after officials cancelled their tickets in the confusion. And Javaid's passport now contains a sticker saying he has undergone highlevel security checks...

Tagged as: discrimination, travel, terrorism, no fly lists

Richard Blair is the blogmaster of All Spin Zone.