Western Union is blocking money transfers to people with Arab names

[TehBorken]

If we (Americans) get any stupider we'll be on Life-Support. How f*cking dumb is this?

[hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"]Western Union is [a href="vny!://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060706/ap_on_bi_ge/emirates_muslim_money"]blocking money transfers to people with Arab names[/a]. They have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed.

In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending $120 to a friend at home last month because the recipient's name was Mohammed. Western union claims they are merely following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines that scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links.

I agree that Western Union shouldn't allow anyone supporting terrorism to use their service, however I'm fairly certain there are millions of people named Mohammed or Ahmed who aren't terrorists. I wonder if any other financial companies such as banks are doing the same thing.  

[Some Chick]

Oh my God.

  At the risk of being accused of a variety of crap — I have to say that right now I am so glad to be a caucasian female living in Canada.  No one ever worries about what we'll do, besides burn a bra or tie ourselves to a tree.

  What is going on in the US is instigating more hatred that wasn't there before.  Utter bullshit.  

  My father and my aunt, on vacation in Paris a few years ago, were taken off of the train and searched.  When the three of us have a tan, we can pass for someone from the middle east (I've been asked before in Farsi if I speak Farsi), and that was what happened.  They thought that my aunt and my dad were middle eastern (we're Irish), so they yanked them off the train to interrogate them before allowing them to return to my brown haired mom.

[TehBorken]

 Some Chick wrote:
My father and my aunt, on vacation in Paris a few years ago, were taken off of the train and searched.  They thought that my aunt and my dad were middle eastern (we're Irish), so they yanked them off the train to interrogate them before allowing them to return to my brown haired mom.

Thank goodness they caught them in time before they could hatch their evil plot to, err, do something tourist-like, or something. Or whatever. (sigh)

 

[Some Chick]

I think it really scared my dad.  He's a total redneck and loved, in the past, to tell racist jokes.  A combination of that experience and consistent chastising from my mother and I has cured him of that.  

  If you've never been a visible minority, there's no way you can relate.

  I was once the only white chick at a Pow Wow of 3000 natives near my hometown.  The stares, the judgments.  Some went out of their way to include me, others sneered...  

  It is the most unreal thing you ever go through.  I was talking to one old woman about the fact that my daughter is part native — she grabbed hold of my arm, lifted my sleeve, licked her finger and rubbed it on my arm.  With a look of disgust, she then let go saying "See, it doesn't wipe off."  

  Talking about the coloour of my skin.

  I'm very sensitive to what people have to deal with, and I pity those among us that lack the experience or compassion to know what hurt they're dealing out by kneejerk actions.