Analyst's note: Let me see if I understand this situation. This is a really a tough problem, so follow closely.
We are a sovereign country concerned about attacks by Islamist jihadist, but we will not profile passengers - even foreign ones to find them. We know that this Islamist enemy, who doesn't like dogs, is using underwear bombs, body cavity bombs and stitching bombs in as breast implants in females in addition to sometimes carrying liquid explosives in fake bottles. This of course is in addition to non-metallic weapons (which includes guns and knives) that do not show up on many scanners. Some Muslims also have used box cutters on Americans to take over aircraft and generally create terror in Americans. This same enemy is known to frequently dress its men in hijabs to hide the fact that they are men.
So now we have a Muslim enemy front group for the Muslim Brotherhood operating in our United States -- this group is called The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) trying to hide behind a religious edict that says anyone dressed as a Muslim woman wearing a hijab can only be patted down around the head and shoulders and no body scanners can be used on them.
Maybe it is just me, but I'd would say we just became a lot safer on our American aircraft in that a lot less of our potential enemy will be flying our friendly skies. At which point we can focus our attention on finding Islamist who do not fit specific American patterns and who wish to do us damage. The harassing of American grandfathers, grandmothers and children can be stopped thus freeing up the TSA workforce from "random" searches. This will help in this time when we are cutting back on government employees.
"The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a travel warning to Muslim airline passengers on U.S. aircraft in response to the Transportation Safety Administration’s "enhanced pat down" policy that went into effect in late October.
In the “special recommendations for Muslim women who wear hijab,” it states: “Before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down.”
It also states: “Instead of the pat-down, you can always request to pat down your own scarf, including head and neck area, and have the officers perform a chemical swipe of your hands.”
The new TSA pat-downs involving “head-to-toe” screening techniques follow recent airliner bombing attempts. Passengers who reject a full-body scan or who are selected for secondary screening may be searched using the enhanced pat-down. [....]
