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9 Muslim Passengers Removed From Jet

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9 Muslim Passengers Removed From Jet
Others on Flight Say a Remark Was 'Suspicious'

Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon after two other passengers overheard what they thought was a suspicious remark.

Members of the party, all but one of them U.S.-born citizens who were headed to a religious retreat in Florida, were subsequently cleared for travel by FBI agents who characterized the incident as a misunderstanding,
an airport official said. But the passengers said AirTran refused to rebook them, and they had to pay for seats on another carrier secured with help from the FBI.
washingtonpost.com

Deja vu on this story. I seem to recall other incidents of this sort of bigotry and profiling by PASSENGERS leading to other "misunderstandings."

Do you think the accusers should be rebuked for this? This sort of hatred is sickening and shows that there's still a nasty undercurrent of bigotry against American Muslims and like all bigotry the rational is all hate based and not fact based in the least.

Kashif Irfan, one of the removed passengers, said the incident began about 1 p.m. after his brother, Atif, and his brother's wife wondered aloud about the safest place to sit on an airplane.

"My brother and his wife were discussing some aspect of airport security," Irfan said. "The only thing my brother said was, 'Wow, the jets are right next to my window.' I think they were remarking about safety."

Irfan said he and the others think they were profiled because of their appearance. He said five of the six adults in the party are of South Asian descent, and all six are traditionally Muslim in appearance, with the men wearing beards and the women in headscarves. Irfan, 34, is an anesthesiologist. His brother, 29, is a lawyer. Both live in Alexandria with their families, and both were born in Detroit. They were traveling with their wives, Kashif Irfan's sister-in-law, a friend and Kashif Irfan's three sons, ages 7, 4 and 2.
 
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I feel so bad for them. It must be so hard to be a Muslim and travel in the United States by air. They have to put up with so much ignorant stereotyping by some people. I've heard stupid comments before when I have traveled and it disgusts me.
 
washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

Deja vu on this story. I seem to recall other incidents of this sort of bigotry and profiling by PASSENGERS leading to other "misunderstandings."

Do you think the accusers should be rebuked for this? This sort of hatred is sickening and shows that there's still a nasty undercurrent of bigotry against American Muslims and like all bigotry the rational is all hate based and not fact based in the least.

I read this article this morning. I actually support the removal of these customers. If these people had said nothing and were targeted just because of what they looked like, I would agree with you. But if someone construed their statements as involving "security" issues, I think it was appropriate that they be reported.
 
I read this article this morning. I actually support the removal of these customers. If these people had said nothing and were targeted just because of what they looked like, I would agree with you. But if someone construed their statements as involving "security" issues, I think it was appropriate that they be reported.

I truly doubt if anyone that would be considered typical "American" had said the same thing, no one would have reported anything.
 
Every "war" has its victims; this is just "collateral damage".

JA_internment.JPG

Internment.jpg
 
I read this article this morning. I actually support the removal of these customers. If these people had said nothing and were targeted just because of what they looked like, I would agree with you. But if someone construed their statements as involving "security" issues, I think it was appropriate that they be reported.
I'm shocked that you would believe it's OK. Had the exact same words been said by you nothing would have happened nor would have anyone thought twice about it. Because someone is Muslim they were falsely accused.

I think it's also important to consider that a true terrorist would most likely not dress in traditional Muslim garb and bring attention to themselves if they were plotting evil; not to mention that they all went through security and they had three children under 7 with them.

Did you read what they actually said? This is America and we must be better than this. Surely you must agree that ignorant passengers should not have the power to disrupt a flight simply because their bigoted fools?
 
I truly doubt if anyone that would be considered typical "American" had said the same thing, no one would have reported anything.

It's possible. I saw a regular-looking American guy filming the gate I was in. The only way you could get into that particular gate was through security. I reported him immediately. It didn't matter what his appearance was. I thought it was creepy.

In a gate at one of the airports in Houston, there were a bunch of Middle Eastern men sitting together. When we got on the flight, they all were spread out in the plane. It made both my husband and I uncomfortable. (The hijackers were spread out in one of the flights that left Boston on 9-11.) We reported it. Does that make me a racial profiler?
 
I feel so bad for them. It must be so hard to be a Muslim and travel in the United States by air. They have to put up with so much ignorant stereotyping by some people. I've heard stupid comments before when I have traveled and it disgusts me.
Well said!

BTW - I love your avatar! Towlie is cool....
 
I'm shocked that you would believe it's OK. Had the exact same words been said by you nothing would have happened nor would have anyone thought twice about it. Because someone is Muslim they were falsely accused.

I think it's also important to consider that a true terrorist would most likely not dress in traditional Muslim garb and bring attention to themselves if they were plotting evil; not to mention that they all went through security and they had three children under 7 with them.

Did you read what they actually said? This is America and we must be better than this. Surely you must agree that ignorant passengers should not have the power to disrupt a flight simply because their bigoted fools?

I understand what you're saying. I'm just describing how I felt when I read the article this morning. I didn't read it and think, "OMG! How dare these people be stopped!" I thought it was appropriate. Had no one said anything about the planes being so close, I would doubt anyone would have reported them.

I'm sure it's terribly frustrating for Muslims, just like African Americans who have complained to me that they notice people watch them more when they are shopping because people presume that they will steal stuff.
 
In a gate at one of the airports in Houston, there were a bunch of Middle Eastern men sitting together. When we got on the flight, they all were spread out in the plane. It made both my husband and I uncomfortable. (The hijackers were spread out in one of the flights that left Boston on 9-11.) We reported it. Does that make me a racial profiler?
Sadly I think it does but it's nothing personal against you. Had you noticed a bunch of religious Jews or Christians under the same circumstances you would not have reported them, right? Therefore if the motivation to report them was their religion then you were profiling them and you did make assumptions based on fear rather than fact.
 
Sadly I think it does but it's nothing personal against you. Had you noticed a bunch of religious Jews or Christians under the same circumstances you would not have reported them, right? Therefore if the motivation to report them was their religion then you were profiling them and you did make assumptions based on fear rather than fact.

....:yt.....
 
I understand what you're saying. I'm just describing how I felt when I read the article this morning. I didn't read it and think, "OMG! How dare these people be stopped!" I thought it was appropriate. Had no one said anything about the planes being so close, I would doubt anyone would have reported them.

I'm sure it's terribly frustrating for Muslims, just like African Americans who have complained to me that they notice people watch them more when they are shopping because people presume that they will steal stuff.
Imagine how it feels if you're Black and cab drivers refuse to pick you up because of your skin color? This incident is no different.

IMHO in order to preserve our freedoms we must extend them to everyone regardless of their religion and/or physical appearance or America as we know it will turn into America as Bush sees it...and I for one cannot tolerate that!
 
Sadly I think it does but it's nothing personal against you. Had you noticed a bunch of religious Jews or Christians under the same circumstances you would not have reported them, right? Therefore if the motivation to report them was their religion then you were profiling them and you did make assumptions based on fear rather than fact.

You're right. I think it's hard not to profile them. How many hijackings have occurred by Jews or Christians in the last 8 years? None that I know of. It just so happens that the hijackings that have occurred in the last 8 years have involved men who were all Muslims.
 
You're right. I think it's hard not to profile them. How many hijackings have occurred by Jews or Christians in the last 8 years? None that I know of. It just so happens that the hijackings that have occurred in the last 8 years have involved men who were all Muslims.
But it only happened on 9/11 in the USA. Proper profiling is doing background checks before they get on the plane which is far more effective than allowing bigotry and ignorance on the passenger level take the lead.

Your previous point about taking a video in an area that does not allow it makes perfect sense to me. Imagine if I said to you that I do not like walking down my block when a Black man is approaching me? Would that be an acceptable statement because there are more Black men in prison demographically than white women?
 
Good on the Airline, I'd have done the same thing.
 
But it only happened on 9/11 in the USA. Proper profiling is doing background checks before they get on the plane which is far more effective than allowing bigotry and ignorance on the passenger level take the lead.

Your previous point about taking a video in an area that does not allow it makes perfect sense to me. Imagine if I said to you that I do not like walking down my block when a Black man is approaching me? Would that be an acceptable statement because there are more Black men in prison demographically than white women?

You'll love this, because they didn't see the guy filming the "security check," they said they were not going to worry about it. WTF? It would be one thing if the security check was not close to the gate, but it was IN THE GATE. Weird.

To me the question is why isn't our security enough that if someone has passed through it, it shouldn't matter what comment is made by a passenger.

I just saw this on Yahoo:

An AirTran spokesman says the it was a misunderstanding. The Muslim passengers say AirTran wouldn't rebook them Thursday and they had to pay for seats on another airline.

Muslim passengers removed from DC flight - Yahoo! News

That is appalling!
 
I feel so bad for them. It must be so hard to be a Muslim and travel in the United States by air. They have to put up with so much ignorant stereotyping by some people. I've heard stupid comments before when I have traveled and it disgusts me.

No one wants to die because of terrorist. Might not be fair, but let's be honest here, the threat is Islamic practitioners killing themselves and the plane... so if I were Muslim, I'd make double sure not to raise any flags. Not because I was cowered by "ignorant stereotypes" but because I understand that certain actions make people nervous.
 
Every "war" has its victims; this is just "collateral damage".

JA_internment.JPG

Internment.jpg


Oh quit.

If it was a misunderstanding, the airline owes those people money. If not, it was a reasonable safety precaution.

Would you rather they be allowed to hijack another plane?
 
I'm shocked that you would believe it's OK. Had the exact same words been said by you nothing would have happened nor would have anyone thought twice about it. Because someone is Muslim they were falsely accused.

I think it's also important to consider that a true terrorist would most likely not dress in traditional Muslim garb and bring attention to themselves if they were plotting evil; not to mention that they all went through security and they had three children under 7 with them.

Did you read what they actually said? This is America and we must be better than this. Surely you must agree that ignorant passengers should not have the power to disrupt a flight simply because their bigoted fools?

I agree with you that the passengers were unjustly inconvenienced, and also agree that the reason for it happening was because of their appearance.

However, I am not sure I relish the idea of making people second guess their instincts. Here is my story:

Many, many years ago I was sitting in a parking lot in my car at night with the doors unlocked. I noticed a man of hispanic appearance approaching the direction of my car and looking at me intently. My first impulse was to quickly lock my doors. However, I decided against it, thinking shamefacedly to myself "You're just being racist, and you don't need to be another person in that man's life who obviously looks at him in fear."

When he got next to the door of my car, he quickly opened it, pulled a large knife on me, and said "Give me your wallet, NOW!!" It was scary. After I handed him my wallet he walked away. I was stunned. After a few more seconds, I thought to myself, in one of my less virtuous moments, " I wish I has had the presence of mind to start my car and try to run him over!!"

In any case, there is something to be learned from this experience. Our impulse to shield others from our own latent racism is still a consideration. However, sometimes you really do see something in the eye of your fellow man and you can't be sure of what you see because you second guess yourself.


It is perfectly natural to be suspicious of "other"... I believe it is an artifact of old evolutionarily aquired traits. Because we must resist this tendency, we are as in danger of false negatives as we are of false positives. That is, this family was the victim of a false positive, and that is quite unfortunate. They were harmed by it, to be sure. However, a false negative can arise from the resistance to racism, and with much more dire consequences.

We are human, and we will make mistakes. All that is left is for us to decide is which side we will err on.
 
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Do you think the accusers should be rebuked for this?
They apparently weren't accusers, they appear to have reported something they overheard that made them suspicious. Good for them, I'd like to see their next tickets bumped up to first class.

If Muslim want to avoid this sort of thing, perhaps they should indicate by deed instead of merely by word that they oppose terrorism.
 
Many, many years ago I was sitting in a parking lot in my car at night with the doors unlocked. I noticed a man of hispanic appearance approaching the direction of my car and looking at me intently. My first impulse was to quickly lock my doors.

See, all I would need to motivate me to lock my doors in a darkened parking lot is the "intentive" look on the guy's face, no matter skin colour.

In any even, besides being Muslim, there were no other reason to raise alarm bells in this case, as being Muslim alone is not good enough of a reason. What the heck happened to common sense?
 
Clearly the Koran orders believers to dominate and claim all nations for Islam and Allah. Clearly these folks have nothing to do with that but then again they have everything to do with that.

This is exactly why the Patriot Act helped protect Muslims.

Everyone saw that the Government was taking stern measures to keep us safe so the vigilantes did not have to take things into their own hands.

But there is nothing to keep Americans from taking actions such as this every day of the week whenever and wherever possible.

That's why we need a national referendum on the matter of Islam and Jihad so that we can reach a consensus and this kind of thing won't be happening more and more.
 
If it was a misunderstanding, the airline owes those people money. If not, it was a reasonable safety precaution.

Would you rather they be allowed to hijack another plane?

And 50 years ago you would be defending Japanese Internment on the same basis. Case closed.
 
See, all I would need to motivate me to lock my doors in a darkened parking lot is the "intentive" look on the guy's face, no matter skin colour.

In any even, besides being Muslim, there were no other reason to raise alarm bells in this case, as being Muslim alone is not good enough of a reason. What the heck happened to common sense?

Yeah, some people seem to have lost theirs.
 
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