You must be a suspicious looking person, Alameda

I went to Britain for a ten-day trip back in 1994 or 1993 and all I heard after presenting my Polish passport and explaining I was there to sightsee castles, was "Enjoy your stay"

Strange how people react....personally I would find it very reassuring that customs were checking people so thoroughly both before and after flying to protect MY safety!

When flying out of the UK I always find it very reassuring to see them checking everyone so carefully.

In addition, if you knew just how often customs officers found items (drugs, weapons, illegal goods, even live animals in horrible conditions) that were trying to be smuggled into this country, you may understand why they have to be so thorough!

My dear, if they checked everyone in the manner I was checked, they would have to employ many more agents, and the delays would be unacceptable.

That would seem to be the case, but other than most definitly not looking British, and having a name that was not Northern European, there wasn´t much I would think suspicious.  My garments were not in any way bizzar or unkempt, (other than the normal wear and tear of a trans Atlantic flight) and I did not have any strange cosmetics.  Perhaps they were too nice, who knows?  Of course, to me it seems it probably was my more exotic appearance and professional cloths that set off suspicion.........what ever it was, it´s was enough to cause me to never cross a Brittish Commonwealth country again.  The world is larger than the British Commonwealth countries, who are happy to see me and are hospitable as well.

Which is all to say, I think it was a result of racist, ethnic bias.........

I don´t like this comment....

My very Turkish looking partner was surprised about how easy going the Dutch customs were. In Turkey, Ataturk airport, he almost got into a fight with the pasport checkers there, since they asked for this pasport twice, and then tried to convince him that he was a criminal with a fake pasport. At the first check, they said everything was okay. He went out to smoke, and when he came back inside he was checked again. At this second check, a commander was asked to come, and took out one of this magnifying glasses, and said "this passport is fake"... What a load of...well, you know...

Getting out of the plane in Holland, ofcourse this very criminal looking Turkish citizen was scared that he would have to go through the whole LONG process of checking again. Instead, the passport control asked him "so, where are you going? Oh, and why are you going there? Okay, have a nice holiday and have fun in Holland!" and he even got a great smile from the policeman after this long round of questions.

The thing is...some people have bad experiences..some people have good experiences. These personal experiences don´t say much about the feelings of an entire country.

 You may think that....or you may just consider that Customs are merely working on "probability"!!!!  If 80% of illegal entries and/or smuggling comes from people of certain ethnic origin, then they are foolish to NOT search people of that ethnic origin eh?

You may call it racism (and maybe in some cases it is) but you can also call it "working effectively"

Well, I think (and there have been studies that prove my point, to which I will not provide a link) it´s a vastly exagerated claim.  Where you put the microscope is where you will find the germs.

It´s not intellegent, it is reactionary and racist..........and it´s not effective. 

BUSSIGNY, Switzerland — A Swiss businessman appalled by his fellow countrymen´s decision to ban minarets has extended a chimney above his company building into a minaret in protest.

"It was scandalous that the Swiss voted for the ban. Now we have the support of all the far-right parties across Europe. This is shameful," Guillaume Morand, who owns a chain of shoe stores, told AFP.

The businessman, who is not a Muslim, explained that the he had constructed the mock minaret at his building near western Switzerland´s city of Lausanne in protest, and at the same time, to "send a message of peace.

Assyrian Church Bell Tower in Turkey Threatened in Retaliation for Swiss Minaret Ban

Diyarbakir, Turkey -- Following the referendum banning minarets in Switzerland, 3 persons visiting the 1,750 year old Assyrian [also known as Chaldean and Syriac] Church of Virgin Mary in Diyarbakir allegedly threatened priest Yusuf Akbulut by saying "Switzerland is banning minarets and we will ban bell towers. You will demolish the bell tower."

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So far for ´open mindedness´.....

Interesting to know.....

ARCHITECT OF SWISS MINARET BAN IS A TURK

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, DECEMBER 9 - One of the architects of the controversial Swiss referendum that resulted in a ban on the construction of minarets has a Turkish heritage, daily Milliyet reported on Wednesday. Born in the Aegean province of Izmir to a Turkish father and a Swiss mother, Soli Pardos family moved to Switzerland when he was 5 years old, the daily said. Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on November 29, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population. Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and anti-Islamic. The referendum by the nationalist Swiss Peoplés Party, or SVP, labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. Pardo also said minarets are used as symbols in Europe, but added: I do not have any reactions against Muslims, and I do not accept that there is Islamaphobia in Switzerland. Pardo, who is the leader of the Geneva Canton for the SVP, said his father was a small-scale industrialist and passed away in 1976 when Pardo was 21. Regarding the referendum, he said: We do not believe that the minarets are linked to worship because no calls to prayer are made from the minarets. We are not against building mosques but against 5- to 6-meter-tall minarets. The initiative was approved 57.5 to 42.5% by some 2.67 million voters. (ANSAmed).

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