Another incident in an ongoing effort to obtain an exemption for Muslims from the body scans that Muslims made necessary. “Pakistani lawmakers refuse body scan, cut short US visit,” from DPA, March 7 (thanks to Slothy):
Islamabad, March 7 (DPA) A delegation of Pakistani lawmakers refused to subject themselves to a controversial full-body X-ray scan at a Washington airport, a media report said Sunday.
The six-member group of the parliament members from Pakistan’s restive tribal region cut short their official US visit immediately to return home, the Pakistani Express News channel said.
It was the first official delegation that refused to go through the body scanners since they were installed at 19 US airports last month.
Abbas Afridi, the head of Pakistani delegation, said the US State Department had invited them to Washington to discuss security and development projects in the tribal region, with a promise that they would not be subjected to body scanning.
‘We were not scanned when we arrived on March 28 in Washington from Pakistan, but on Saturday when we wanted to travel to another city the authorities told us that we would be scanned,’ Afridi told Express News.
‘We refused the scanning and now we are returning home,’ he said….