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The
US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) will routinely
fingerprint, photograph
and
question potential entrants, checking their pictures and prints
against criminal and
terrorist databases. But this new policy register people from
selected Arab and Muslim
countries on arrival in the US.
Citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Sudan will be targeted
and visitors especially
men
from other Muslim and Middle Eastern countries.
The
policy is aimed at preventing a repeat of the security lapses which
allowed the 11
September hijackers to live undetected in the US for so long.
Pakistan and Malaysia reacted to this regulation and the Malaysian
Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohammad said the measures represented
“anti-Muslim hysteria” in the US.
The
Arab community in the US thinks they will be targeting on their
basis of their race and
religion.
The
US Justice Department has also issued a directive that anyone who
has frequently
visited the Middle East, North Africa, Cuba or North Korea can be
taken aside too, if they
do
not have what it calls a credible explanation for their trip.
Muhathir added, "Because of the acts of a few people, the whole
Muslim world seems to
have
been labelled," he said.
Now
the authorities will formally register those aged 16 to 45 deemed an
“elevated security
risk”.
They
will then have 30 days to say where they are living, working or
studying.
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