One of the most interesting wrinkles in a story with many, the tale of Andrew Speaker, the Atlanta lawyer harboring drug-resistant tuberculosis, is how he so easily traipsed back into the U.S., ushered in by a Customs agent who saw that Speaker had been flagged in the computer system but nevertheless assumed he was good to go since he didn't appear sick.

Good thing for Speaker he wasn't an American Muslim. Any number of U.S. citizens who happen to be Muslims have been stopped at the Canadian border upon reentry and detained for questioning by Homeland Security Department employees in cases that have suspiciously resembled ethnic and religious profiling.

Why U.S. citizens who are Muslims without any history of being a threat to the nation should be treated as potential dangers and the 31-year old Speaker who actually was known by authorities to harbor a deadly bacteria should treated another is open to speculation.

Could it be that he was racially profiled too, but to his benefit, that is as a clean-cut white man with a professional bearing? If he had been a healthy looking, brown-skinned Muslim American, would he have been allowed in so readily? Impossible to know but questions to ponder. [Link]