Zayed Khan: Of course, we Khans go through this kind of humiliation all the time. I've gone through it, Salman has gone through it. I'm glad people are talking about it because of Shah Rukh. There have been times when I've been with 17 people in a team on tour or for a shooting in the US. Out of these only one gets detained at the airport. Guess who invariably gets detained? And some Caucasian bully, who does these checkings by the book and thinks all Khans are terrorists, will tell you it's a random check. Tell me, how can there be random checks on five US airports one after another and in all of them only yours truly gets detained for additional checking? I think there's a big difference between being secure and being ignorant.
Shabina Khan (dress designer): I really don't know what happened with Shah Rukh in the US. But I definitely get into issues at the airport thanks to my surname. It's annoying. It's scary.
Kabir Khan (director): I was accompanying my wife in the US along with the Morani Brothers. It was a flight from LA to Washington just 15 days after 9/11. So the fear and paranoia were not totally unjustified. We were waiting for the flight to take off talking to each other in Hindi when some passengers complained that we were talking in a 'strange' language. Within no time two burly FBI agents came on board and took me and my co-passengers to the front of the plane. When they got to know my name, they questioned me for more than two hours, googled my name for terrorist links and then finally allowed me to fly.
They asked me if I had been to Pakistan. I told them no. If I had told them that I had been to Afghanistan, they'd have freaked out. Two other passengers on board refused to fly with us. So they were asked to deboard. So you see post 9/11 persecution comes with its inbuilt safety measures. But I honestly think a part of the global fear is justified. We can't blame people for being paranoid after what has happened.
Irrfan Khan: More than the physical torture, it's the wounds of humiliation that never heal after you undergo such a horrific experience. It happened to me on two occasions. I was detained in New York and Los Angeles airport for secondary interrogation. I was outraged. I was told to quietly come into a room for questioning and identification verification. I wasn't allowed to talk. When I tried to ask why I was being treated this way, I was told to keep quiet. I wasn't allowed to use my phone. They said, 'No, you just sit down.' All because my name was Irrfan Khan. You can't argue or rationalise.
On a second occasion this time in New York, when I was detained I blew my top. I told this big Black American guy, 'Please clear the confusion about my identity once and for all. Or don't provide me with a visa. I don't want to come back to the US.' The guy wanted to know if it was a threat. I was taken aback. Mira Nair had to intervene. She advised me to never counter-question them. This is the free spirit of America. This 90-minute detention changed me completely. Can you imagine what a 90-day detention can do to an innocent man thrown into jail?
Dilip Kumar: After hearing these atrocious accounts who wants to travel to such a stupid place when our beautiful India offers Kashmir's jannat and Kerala's luminous glory? God forbid, if we have to go to such a country.
and below are excepts of other bollywood figures over the incident.
Karan Johar says "I am shocked and upset...feeling terrible for Shah Rukh."
Farah Khan : “It is shocking that there is not a single Indian working at that US airport and that they don`t know Shah Rukh Khan who is one of the biggest stars of the world. It is good that you take security measures but frisking India`s former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Azad and then detaining Shah Rukh Khan is a bit ridiculous
Priyanka tweets at twitter. Quote“Shocking, disturbing and downright disgraceful. It’s such behavior that fuels hatred and racism. SRK’s a world figure for God’s sake. GET REAL!!” Unquote
Vishal dadlani (vishal-bhardwaj group) Quote “This is plain silly!! I mean, a quick internetUnquote
Kabir Khan: When I heard this news, I was so surprised...it has almost become a routine. If you have a Muslim name you are bound to be questioned. It happened with me thrice in the US. I was stopped by immigration officials for three to five hours... they don't care whether you are a celebrity or whoever. But when it comes to Shah Rukh, it doesn't take more than 20 seconds to figure out who he is. Any search engine on the Internet will give more information on him than Hollywood stars Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt and despite that if it took them two hours to figure out, then it's harassment. Post 9/11 it is prejudice to have a person's name and religion checked and it is very discouraging as well.
Pritish Nandy: This is the problem with law enforcers worldwide...Truly obnoxious. Cops don't want to recognise anybody. They love to show their power and authority, especially in the US.
Kunal Kohli: It's really disgusting. Even if they had done a Google search on their mobiles, they would have seen who he is. What were they checking for two hours on their super computers? To detain him for two hours is ridiculous, disgusting and an insult to us Indians.
Arindam Chaudhari: Shah Rukh has just finished his film My Name Is Khan in which his character tries to prove to the Americans that he is not a terrorist. I'm sure he never th
ought it would happen in real life too...What a shame! It's shocking and shameful because I am sure Shah Rukh would have had to explain who he is. It's Shah Rukh so it's become big news. But there many who constantly go through this everyday. It's really sad.
Eesha Koppikhar: I am not sure of the exact events but if he was detained just because he is a Muslim with Khan as a last name, it is very wrong.
Then some excerpts from politicians, diplomat and other personalities,
Shashi Tharoor(Minister of State for External Affairs , Former UN representative) "we all found it offensive". Mr. Tharoor however said SRK himself spoke about the matter with "great dignity.""This also happens to hundreds of innocent Muslims daily who don't have one billion people to stand up for them and raises real questions about the US procedure."
Ambika Soni (I&B Minister) :"I am of the opinion that the way we are frisked, for example I too was frisked, we should also do the same to them,(tHB says: we don't support tit-for-tat attitude, no suffering for genuine travellers whether indians or westerners or anyone)
Gotham Chopra : "Not Brad Pitt, not George Clooney, not Tom Cruise, Denzel, Bruce Wayne, Gladiator, or any of the other usual suspects. No we're talking the BIGGEST movie star in the world ladies and gents, Bollywood sensation SHAH RUKH KHAN." Back to the New Jersey incident, Gotham writes, "This is no joke people. Shah Rukh Khan is the biggest movie star in India, a country of 1.3 billion people, thereby making him the biggest movie star in the world. I'm struggling to find a comparable here in the US. No offense to Matt Damon or Pitt, Cruise, Clooney, Angelina or whomever else you can think of, but they all pale in comparison. Maybe Michael Jackson, God rest his soul, or Madonna are vaguely comparable. Maybe." . "But here's the thing. It's not just American customs agents being provincial, it's the fact that I would guess that in India alone, there are several million Khans. I'm not joking. Khan is one of the most common Muslim names and India is not even an Islamic country. "Ghengis Khan," anyone? Khan is like Jones or Smith. This is how our security works in the US? This is how we are catching terrorists? Are you kidding me?" The detention was shameful, he states, "A few weeks ago, a big to-do was made about African American Hardvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. getting arrested outside of his own house in Suburban, Massachusetts. Now this. Racial profiling in America, either subtley as it appears to have happened with Gates in Mass (my hometown) or by the book as it appears to have happened in NJ is shameful. It's based on ignorance and it actually perpetuates the same sort of hostility it aims to undo." He adds, "I'm not going to get all crazy about this and blow it out of proportion, though I do think it's a big deal and could see it blowing up if Indians in India get galvanized. The point is that despite all of our social networking and our flattening of the world and our East-West fusion culture and the fact that people in Milwaukee do yoga , we're still pretty provincial here in the good ol' US of A and there is an implict danger to it." Gotham concludes, "Trust me on this one, Shah Rukh Khan is no terrorist. That's not my wife's type."Shekhar Kapoor : "And President Obama, adept as he is diplomatically and politically, should invite Shah Rukh to a family dinner over beer and (view) one of his Bollywood films,"
and then you have other voices and some changing minds
Salman Khan (Actor) It is not such a big deal. When we go there, we too have to go through the security check. There haven’t been any attacks in the US since 9/11 because of th
eir stringent security measures. I think it is a good thing"and then Salman changes gear and issue a contradicting statement "alman has now criticised US airport authorities for detaining and questioning fellow star Shahrukh Khan.
Earlier, Salman Khan while giving his reactions over the episode said, "It is not such a big deal. When we go there, we too have to go through the security check. There haven't been any attacks in the US since 9/11 because of their stringent security measures. I think it is a good thing (the security)." After finding his personal response uncanny, he changed his view and told the press, "Just because of few Muslims, billions of the community members face problems, which is not right." Well, Salman seems to be confused on what to say and what not.
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