Canadian Muslim Doctor Escorted Off Airplane For Suspicious Praying

[Veiled Princess 1]

If praying in your seat is 'just as good',

Well it's actually not 'just as good' but it's acceptable if you have no other choice.

Again, I didn't see any mention in the article that this man was in the aisle, just that he was reciting his prayers, which I'm assuming was done in his seat.

I could have missed it though due to my lack of reading skills

[pedroh 21]

people who freak out are a bunch of arseholes.. like the ones in that awful website that someone linked.. if i see a guy freakin out because a muslim is praying, im gonna kick his ####### so he can stfu.. geeze..

[sarah and hicham 3]

I always get stuck next to the guy who orders about 15 mini bottles of Jack Daniels within an hour then he starts leaning over more and more and annoying everyong... I hate that ######.

[Alex+R 0]

I always get stuck next to the guy who orders about 15 mini bottles of Jack Daniels within an hour then he starts leaning over more and more and annoying everyong... I hate that ######.

Ahahhahaha me too! On a flight from Amsterdam I got a pretty drunk guy sitting next to me about 3 times my age who thought he stood a chance!

[Heracles 417]

I think they should stop serving alcohol on airplanes. They have all these restrictions, but drunk people in planes never seems to be a problem. I have seen my fare share of drunks on planes and it's ridiculous...forget snakes on planes they should do a movie about drunks on planes...

quite true.. You should see Aussie flights..

[godsavethequeen 0]

Just had the UK news on the TV and I can't believe this one.

Two guys dresses in thick warm clothes, talking a "strange" language, trying to get on a plane to the UK are taken away, questioned and not allowed to board. They were just warmly dressed men and released.

These idiotic terrified holiday makers inform security of their fears of these men!! The one holiday maker interviewed said ( I paraphrase) - everybody else was in shorts and flip flops and spoke English so they did appeared suspicious???

It is pretty cold and raining today in England and the "strange language talkers" are only in sensible clothes for this weather....

...and on the prayers thing I heard Christians praying, I heard Muslims praying on them planes, I've even been known to mutter obscenities about the prayers . Just pass some new security law, no talking, muttering, laughing on a flight.... We can all feel safe.

Time for the Paranoia to cease...........

Edited August 20, 2006 by godsavethequeen

[Kathryn41 3,205]

An observation - if the guy had spread his rug in the middle of the aisle to pray it would have been the flight attendents complaining and kicking him off the flight if he wouldn't return to his seat. The story mentions none of that, only that a drunk passenger complained that he was praying in an unknown language and I am assuming it was while he was in his seat. The guy should definitely have been compensated as well as received a sincere apology for the insult and the inconvenience.

On the other matter, I am not religious but I fully recognize that there are many people who are. It costs me nothing to be considerate of their need or desire to pray whether they are seated on the seat next to me or whatever - as long as they don't insist that I join them or try to deny me my right not to pray with them - I have no problems with them praying. Heck, these days flying can be pretty traumatic and I suspect there are atheists who want to pray while on a plane! Anyway, if we succomb to fear and paranoia about anyone who is different and throw common sense out the window, then the terrorists - whether home grown or foreign - have already won.

Edited August 20, 2006 by Kathryn41

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

Just had the UK news on the TV and I can't believe this one.

Two guys dresses in thick warm clothes, talking a "strange" language, trying to get on a plane to the UK are taken away, questioned and not allowed to board. They were just warmly dressed men and released.

These idiotic terrified holiday makers inform security of their fears of these men!! The one holiday maker interviewed said ( I paraphrase) - everybody else was in shorts and flip flops and spoke English so they did appeared suspicious???

It is pretty cold and raining today in England and the "strange language talkers" are only in sensible clothes for this weather....

...and on the prayers thing I heard Christians praying, I heard Muslims praying on them planes, I've even been known to mutter obscenities about the prayers . Just pass some new security law, no talking, muttering, laughing on a flight.... We can all feel safe.

Time for the Paranoia to cease...........

yeah sure. maybe it's time for people to use some common sense and stop trying to stand out.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

In local news.. nothing major except JonBenet and Karr the child marrying type

Fox News found it's next thing to cover since the Holloway disappearance. Anything to keep American's mind off the real news.

[nayalamb 0]

its just stupid...

i pray on every single flight i go on... and i slip in an extra one if there's turbulence

that guy should get a public and written apology, compensation from the airline, and the drunk idiot on board should have to also pay compensation for being an ignorant a$$wipe.

[Kajikit 65]

How come they didn't kick the DRUNK off the plane too? That's disgusting and IMO the guy has everything he needs to win a lawsuit against the airline - he was just quietly trying to go home and he was abused, threatened and treated like a terrorist just because he has brown skin and a name that doesn't sound Anglo enough?

[Bosco 1]

Just had the UK news on the TV and I can't believe this one.

Two guys dresses in thick warm clothes, talking a "strange" language, trying to get on a plane to the UK are taken away, questioned and not allowed to board. They were just warmly dressed men and released.

These idiotic terrified holiday makers inform security of their fears of these men!! The one holiday maker interviewed said ( I paraphrase) - everybody else was in shorts and flip flops and spoke English so they did appeared suspicious???

Here is a link to an article. The men were speaking what "sounded Arabic".

Passengers explain pair's removal

Passengers on a Manchester-bound flight have described how two men were removed from the plane because other travellers thought they were speaking Arabic.

Heath Schofield, a passenger on the flight from Malaga, described it as being a "bit like Chinese whispers".

Monarch Airlines said passengers had demanded the men were removed because they were acting suspiciously.

Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood said it was disgraceful the pair seemed to have been judged on their skin colour.

The men - reported to be of Asian or Middle Eastern appearance - were taken from Wednesday's flight ZB 613 and questioned but were allowed to fly back to the UK later in the week.

Refusal to board

Mr Schofield, who was travelling with his wife Jo and their children, said: "We all started boarding the flight.

"Our daughter noticed a couple of guys that were perhaps acting a bit strange. They went to the front of the queue, went to the back of the queue, and then they went and sat down by themselves.

"Anyway, we got on the plane and we boarded and it became apparent after we were already supposed to be flying that several of the passengers had refused to board the craft.

"A few rumours went round, it was a little bit like Chinese whispers, and then some more people decided they were getting off."

Plane finally took off

He said Spanish police officers came on to the plane and took the two men's passports and 20 minutes later the pair were removed from the plane.

All the passengers were then taken off and the plane and all the luggage was swept for explosives. Three hours later the passengers boarded again and the plane took off without the pair.

We can't have a situation where one passenger decides that another passenger isn't going to fly

David Reynolds

British Airline Pilots Association

His wife said: "We still don't know what was said, or whether it was anything to be alarmed about."

She said: "A lot of mums were trying to calm the children down - they were getting quite panicky because of what they'd seen on the telly.

"It became apparent that the reason that some of the people didn't board the plane was because somebody had overheard the gentlemen in question speaking - I think it was Arabic."

'Tight procedures'

Mr Mahmood said it was "absolutely disgraceful" that passengers had taken it on themselves to label people.

"That is not what we want. The colour of your skin shouldn't identify what you are. It is a sad state of affairs that that has happened."

He called for air passengers to understand that once people were allowed through security "they should be OK".

David Reynolds, from the British Airline Pilots Association, said there were "very tight procedures" in place to ensure only the "right sort of people" boarded flights.

"Clearly, we can't have a situation where one passenger decides that another passenger isn't going to fly," he said.

[pedroh 21]

they should all sue the airlines arses big time

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

http://blisteringcheese.com/index.php/weblog/comments/12328/

lovely commentary from the "right".

Really - justifying racism. If this is the current state of play - perhaps they should create a new criminal offence. Screw drunk and disorderly - we should apparently be worried about those: travelling while asian..

[mawilson 2,133]

I think they should stop serving alcohol on airplanes.

I agree completely.

I disagree completely. What else can you do on airplanes except get hammered?

I always get stuck next to the guy who orders about 15 mini bottles of Jack Daniels within an hour then he starts leaning over more and more and annoying everyong... I hate that ######.

Ahahhahaha me too! On a flight from Amsterdam I got a pretty drunk guy sitting next to me about 3 times my age who thought he stood a chance!

Maybe he would have, if you'd had a few drinks yourself