Bollywood Star Grilled at Newark Airport

Indians furious over 'flying while brown' racial profiling
By Mat Probasco,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 16, 2009 5:15 AM CDT
Bollywood Star Grilled at Newark Airport
Muslim activists burn an effigy of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan in June for allegedly making comments about the Prophet Mohammad that offended religious sentiments, in Hyderabad, India.   (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Immigration officials at New Jersey's Newark airport detained and questioned the man considered India's king of Bollywood for more than an hour yesterday, renewing criticism of racial profiling some call "flying while brown," reports the Washington Post. Film star Shah Rukh Khan said he felt "angry and humiliated" by the experience. He was stopped en route to a Chicago parade marking India's independence day. He was finally freed after local Indian officials vouched for him.

"I was really hassled—perhaps because of my name being Khan," he said. Ironically, Khan, 43, recently finished shooting in the US for the film, "My Name Is Khan," about a Muslim victim of racial profiling. Continental Airlines apologized last month for frisking former Indian president Abdul Kalam at a New Delhi airport. (More Shah Rukh Khan stories.)

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