Jitters created by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States have left a chill that has some foreign-born Londoners avoiding travel to the U.S. With the U.S. adopting new security measures, such as fingerprinting foreign nationals arriving there, many Canadian landed immigrants are concerned about how they might be treated on trips across the border.

Concern was heightened after Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar was deported to Syria, not Canada, as he went through the U.S. last year.

"Many people in my community have indicated they now do not go to the States because they don't want to be placed in a similar situation," said Munir El Kassem, a University of Western Ontario professor and spiritual leader at the Islamic Centre of Southwestern Ontario. "With racial profiling, travel is becoming more and more of a problem for minorities."

El Kassem no longer travels to or through the U.S. for fear of being interrogated and treated with indignity.

"The question is -- are we considered two classes of Canadian citizens?"

The new anti-terrorism measure, which lets U.S. officials instantly run criminal checks, won't affect most Canadian citizens, but applies to landed immigrants.

It affects foreigners entering 115 U.S. airports and 14 major seaports, where customs officials will check passengers instantly against terrorist watch lists and a national criminal database.

Exceptions are visitors from Canada, Mexico and 27 other countries, mostly European, whose citizens are allowed to be in the U.S. for as long as 90 days without visas.

Most Canadians aren't affected since most aren't required to obtain visas.

The new measures are "overkill" that paint thousands of people with one brush, said El Kassem.

"People are drawn into a situation where they are treated like suspects and criminals and it puts (them) in a position where they are very uncomfortable."

El Kassem said Arar's case put fear into the hearts of many Arab Canadians.

The 33-year-old software engineer spent a year in a Syrian jail after being picked up by U.S. authorities at New York's Kennedy airport in September 2002 while returning to Canada from a family visit in the Middle East.

"People are asking for explanations why he was sent to Syria, being a Canadian citizen, but it is more than that," said El Kassem.

"People are becoming more and more skeptical about how complete their identities as Canadians and good citizens of the country are."

Riad Fares of Fares Travel said fewer immigrants than ever are willing to make flight connections in the U.S. when travelling abroad.

"When we have clients who were not (born in) Canada, we never connect them through the United States," he said.

"We used to sell via Chicago, New York -- it doesn't matter where they are going beyond Canada, but now if they are going somewhere else, they go through Europe."

Even before he started avoiding the U.S. after the 2001 attacks, El Kassem said he had difficulty at U.S. checkpoints.

"Just to tell them I am from London, Ontario, was not a sufficient origin for customs officials. They would say, 'No, where are you (originally) from?' " he said.

El Kassem, 48 has lived in London for 28 years and raised all six of his children here.

"This is my country," he said. "I feel much more Canadian than Lebanese.

"But I subscribe to a faith that is not looked upon with favour, so I have to be dealt with differently than anyone who was born here?"