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One of the most difficult phases of my life was being a Middle Eastern student in a post-9/11 United States. I felt terrible for the victims of the terrorist attacks of that sad day, but I also felt terrible about the reactions faced by others of Middle Eastern descent in the United States. I considered myself lucky for living in a community that was very understanding. I was personally never a victim of any form of hate crime.

I was deeply hurt when the whole racial profiling issue came about. I did not enjoy having to go the INS building down town to “register” - as all Middle Eastern (with the exception of Israelis, of course) and Muslim males between the ages of 18 and 45 of age were forced to - to have my fingerprints and photographs taken and to go through a degrading 45-minute interview that dealt with things I had no connection with. This left me with the feeling of being unwelcome and of less standing than everyone else in the society I was living in.

I found it getting harder and harder to enjoy things a 20-year old normally would during those days. It was difficult to focus in class at times or go through with some of the things I needed to take care of. My relationships with many of my friends turned cold because I didn’t feel like seeing anyone. I know that the whole ethnic profiling issue did not revolve around me personally, but it was difficult for me because I felt that I was being punished for a crime I would never even consider committing, and that the collective Middle Eastern/Muslim community living in the United States was being punished for a crime against humanity that a very small group of fanatics were responsible for. I decided that it was for my best interest to return to my home country after obtaining my Bachelor’s degree from the United States, especially after the War on Terror decided to take an extended detour through Iraq. I just wanted to go back home and live with people who come from the same background as I do, which would make life a lot easier.

I later got the chance to continue my graduate studies in Japan. A big part of the reason I thought Japan would be a great place for me to go to for my education was because it was not involved in “ethnic profiling” practices at airports as in the United States.

This year, however, things have begun to change. In my most recent flight back to Tokyo after a vacation in Bahrain, I was in for an unwelcome surprise. When I arrived in the airport, I was treated nicely by the customs officers and wasn’t even asked to open my suitcase after the customs officer found out that I was a student in one of the top universities in Japan. When I finally left the baggage claim area and walked into the arrivals lounge, a plain-clothed police officer walked over to me and introduced himself as a policeman. He asked if it was alright to ask me some questions (not that he was going to accept no as an answer, obviously). He asked me this in Formal Arabic - the kind you learn from memorizing textbooks and not by mixing with native speakers of the language. I replied to each one of his questions - which were all asked in Arabic - in Japanese. He took down my alien registration card number and contact information at the end of the questions and wrote all my “answers” down in a small black notebook he was carrying with him. He was obviously spoon-fed all the questions he was asking me in that mechanical Arabic of his. He seemed to be upset with me when he discovered that I didn’t seem to match the “typical Arab/Muslim stereotype”. I guess he didn’t realize that he was talking to a full-time student in his mid-twenties. He kept asking me more and more questions that were just so degrading and tasteless, but all I could do is take it with a pinch of salt.

I thought I had the whole airport issue behind me at the end of my 20+ hour-long journey to my dormitory in West Tokyo when I discovered something else: The locks on my bag were broken. I went through the content of my suitcase and made sure that none of my belongings were missing and started to tell myself, “Maybe the locks just broke. Nothing else happened.” I kept saying this until I noticed that some of the packages that carried some traditional sweets that I bought as gifts for friends of mine here all had small holes in them, as if they were punctured by small needles. It all made sense to me later on: everything in the airport was an act and that I was still being given the “special treatment” for my ethnicity. I was upset but knew that it was useless to even think about it.

Just today, I read an article (pasted below) that said that Japan is going to begin taking the fingerprints and photos of all foreigners in airports next year. I found this slightly distressing and talked to a few friends of mine. One of them said to me that this policy does not only target to people of your ethnicity but all foreigners. The other said, “You know why everyone is being asked to have their fingerprints and photos taken, right? It’s because a certain group is being targeted and if they’re singled out, it will make the policy-makers seem racist.”

I find myself leaning towards my second friend’s opinion, but that’s just me.

Japan to take fingerprints, photos of foreigners
Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:09am EDT

By Isabel Reynolds

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is to fingerprint and photograph foreigners entering the country from next month in an anti-terrorism policy that is stirring anger among foreign residents and human rights activists.

Anyone considered to be a terrorist — or refusing to cooperate — will be denied entry and deported.

“This will greatly contribute to preventing international terrorist activities on our soil,” Immigration Bureau official Naoto Nikai said in a briefing on the system, which starts on November 20.

The checks are similar to the “U.S. Visit” system introduced in the United States after the attacks on September 11, 2001.

But Japan, unlike the United States, will require resident foreigners as well as visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed every time they re-enter the country.

“It certainly doesn’t make people who’ve been here for 30 or 40 years feel like they’re even human beings basically,” said businessman Terrie Lloyd, who has dual Australian and New Zealand citizenship and has been based in Japan for 24 years.

“There has not been a single incident of foreign terrorism in Japan, and there have been plenty of Japanese terrorists,” he said.

There are more than two million foreigners registered as resident in Japan, of whom 40 percent are classed as permanent residents.

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS

The pictures and fingerprints obtained by immigration officials will be made available to police and may be shared with foreign immigration authorities and governments.

Diplomats and children under 16 are excluded from the new requirement, as are “special” permanent residents of Korean and Chinese origin, many of whom are descended from those brought to Japan as forced labor before and during World War Two.

Local government fingerprinting of foreign residents when issuing registration cards, long a source of friction, was abolished in 2000.

Amnesty International is calling for the immigration plan to be abandoned.

“Making only foreigners provide this data is discriminatory,” said Sonoko Kawakami of Amnesty’s Japan office. “They are saying ‘terrorist equals foreigner’. It’s an exclusionary policy that could encourage xenophobia.”

The new system is being introduced as Japan campaigns to attract more tourists. More than 6.7 million foreign visitors came to Japan in 2006, government statistics show. Immigration officials say they are unsure how long tourists can expect to wait in line for the checks to be made.

Britain is set to require non-European foreign nationals to register biometric details when applying for visas from next year.