Posted on 08/20/2006 2:10:04 PM PDT by World_Events
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.
Heath and Jo Schofield were on the Manchester 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
The unanswered question: Why were the two men in question taken off the plane? There are answers implied, but it's interesting that none are given directly. Were the passengers correct?
Yea, whatever....it's about time that people stood up for their concern against those "religion of peace" members. It's their own fault...let's hope it happens more often.
Meadow Muffin
The passengers were absolutely correct. Even if these two were not carrying contraband and were as pure as driven snow, the passengers were absolutely correct.
When people start acting suspiciously and are dressed inappropriately for the climate, this is what you are supposed to do.
Actually, what you are supposed to do is start jumping up and down and demanding the police, or taking them down yourself. But, failing that, the passengers did the right thing.
As far as whether or not these two have anything to do with terrorism, my give a damn is busted on this one. If they were thrown out an Emergency Exit at 30,000 feet, I might be able to work up some concern, but it would be a big effort.
When the leaders fail to lead the people, THE PEOPLE MUST LEAD THE LEADERS.
If they don't like it, they should take it up with their local Imam, who is advocating terrorism.
Under the same kind of circumstances, I would be nervous, too and I would want the airline to boot off the suspicious passengers.
Of course, the Muslims are complaining that these passengers were victims of racial profiling. Well, when the so-called moderate Muslims start taking meaningful action against their extremist co-religionists, then maybe we can think about not offending their delicate sensibilities with racial profiling. Until then, they can just endure the indignities that their fanatic brethren are causing them to undergo.
And the emergence of an outraged Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood gives me a dead lock on any bets.
They should be - but aren't always. or how did all those other hijackings and bombing attempts occur?
Stay vigilant!
The public is waking up. Unfortunately, the forces of PC will shut them up and tell them that they are racist. This is unfortunate.
.
Love that tag line. Put a smile on my face.
Only if the passengers undertook actions demonstrably against their own interests could we say they were IRRATIONAL.
As they acted in what they saw were their interests, they acted RATIONALLY.
Customers are entitled to feel safe, and hopefully there will be many more of these incidents.
"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."
It is a sad state of affairs, but it is not one of our making. The Muslims have brought this upon themselves. Unless they reform, it is going to get a heckuva lot worse.
Here is another: "Muslim doctor wants apology from U.S. airline" http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/08/18/doctor-winnipeg.html
I would post it myself, but with all the restrictions on posting, I'm not sure what's allowed anymore.
I consider both of theses stories good news stories, the kind you want to read with morning breakfast to get the day off to a good start.
"Uh, that's not what happened. It was ok for the two guys to fly but the other passengers didn't want to fly with them. The pilot made the final decision though. What's interesting to me is that they were removed and questioned and the passengers were not told to fly with them or get off. Even luggage was searched and everyone re-screened. Officials obviously saw something that needed checking out too.
Time and time again companies or the authorities have made people bear burdens, the only comfort being, "This is for your own safety...!"
Yet, when the masses undertake measures of their OWN ACCORD, this is lambasted as INTOLERANCE.
How unfortunate that the media and the airlines wishes for us to have unsafe flights.
"Clearly we can't have a situation where ONE passenger decides that another passenger isn't going to fly."Obviously the person making the statement is confused.I believe the desire to have the two men removed from the aircraft was unanimous.
The Muslims have made their bed ...
I don't see where the passengers were innappropriately dresesd or where it states that they were muslims. In fact, the only thing that I see is that they might have been middle eastern or asian, and someone thought they were speaking Arabic. This is the problem with letting passengers decide who can get on a flight.
My husband Has been accused of being arabic and a muslim many times. He is PuertoRican and Catholic. If someone doesn't want to fly with him, they are free to get off the plane. They should not have the right to have him removed from the plane. I think the airlines acted innappropriately.
Nobody gives a crap about "skin colour" any more. That is like, so mid-20th-Century.
It would take them under one minute to shave their bears. To act live civilized human beings should require no extra burden on their part.
Given our recent history, people everywhere should give extra attention to people who harbor an unusual attraction to goats, or clad their women in army surplus tents.
If we had more moderate Arabs prominently denouncing terrorism and helping the authorities to bust islamofascists, Flight Vetos would have never begun.
There was an article yesterday that said these guys were wearing heavy leather jackets that the passengers felt was inappropriate for the season.
I may be an intolerant bigot, but I'm not gonna be a sacrifice to satanallah!
More information: Mutiny on Flight 613
This is what people are supposed to do. I am sorry if your husband is harrassed, but these are the times we live in. If I were him, I would take care to dress appropriately and not act in such a way that would arouse suspicion.
No, you wouldn't find that in a piece on the BBC site. Here is the original article from the Daily Mail:
Another thing that I find interesting is that there still is no mention that they were not Muslims. This story could have been turned upside down by reporting "paranoid passengers refused two fly with two men that were later determined to be American Baptist missionaries"
I think most people would rather be alive and thought to be racist, then dead and congratulated for being sooooo PC. I know I would. I don't give a flying you-know-what what others think of me; I'd rather be alive.
The message is clear: If you see Muslims acting strangely at the airport, you are a rotten, rotten person for even *thinking* something could be amiss. Shame on you. Instead of reporting your suspicions, you should sit down and shut up like a good little sheep.
They said it sounded like "Chinese whispers", because it makes a healthy fear sound like uneducated delusions.
Very insightful. You're absolutely right. If these two had turned out to be something other than Muslims, the BBC would not be able to resist making that the focus of the story. The "Rubes mistake Hindus for Muslims" story practically writes itself. The only possible explaination for this not being the story is that the men were, in fact, Muslims.
Ever since 9/11, we've been hectored by security officials to be on the alert and vigilent about potential threats. Now when a group of people does exactly that, some fathead tries to guilt-trip them for it. Screw you and your PC-speak, Mister MP Mahmood, we're taking responsibility for our own safety these days. If that sometimes leads to innocent parties being inconvenienced, that's the breaks of being involved in a war.
I think it is the British variant of the game we would call "telephone", where one person whispers to another around a circle and you see how the message was distorted by the time it gets to the last person.
He is a firefighter and only wears one thing, ever. Jeans and an EMS t shirt. He speaks Spanish, English or Portuguese. It is generally the Portugeuse that people mistake for arabic. He hasn't been removed from a flight, but he has been asked to leave stores and once he was asked not to return to a dry cleaners. He has also had many patients ask for another medic because they thought he was a Muslim. Unfortunate, but not a big deal. Removing him from a plane would be a big deal. It is sad, even more because he worked on the WTC recovery for 6 weeks, without pay, and he is as American as he could be.
The passenger is saying that rumors were going around the boarding area but he believed they had been somewhat altered by the time they got to him.
Beat me to it.
The behavior seems perfectly rational to me, and I'd categorize it as a setback for the terrorists.
Not so easy anymore is it boys?
Nope. Still busted.
Sorry your husband suffers because of the difficult times we live in. I wish we lived in less difficult times, but we don't. If we act in such a way that your husband is never offended or inconvenienced, we will leave ourselves much more vulnerable to people who want us dead.
Sorry about that. I wish it was not so, but it is.
BTW, I have never heard of Portuguese being mistaken for anything other than Spanish. And in my neighborhood, we know Portuguese.
If guys are moving around, sitting down, standing up, changing places, dressed in unusually heavy clothing, and whispering in a strange language, that is VERY suspicious. There's no way they DON'T know that their behavior will provoke suspicion.
Perhaps they were a "dry run".
Maybe they just got tired of trying to get all that soot out of his clothes...
Just kidding. I'm sorry that he's been subjected to that - especially given the fact that he's obviously a patriotic American. However I do think these passengers were justified in their actions.
Multiple Choice Test
1. In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles by
(a) Superman,
(b) Jay Leno,
(c) Tiger Woods,
(d) a man from Palestine between 17 and 40 years old.
2. In 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were kidnapped and killed at the Munich Olympics by
(a) the kid who cuts your grass,
(b) Sitting Bull,
(c) Arnold Schwarzenegger,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
3. In 1979, the US Embassy in Tehran was over-ran & 90 Americans were held for 444 days by
(a) Bruce Lee,
(b) Elvis Presley's deceased twin brother,
(c) a tour group of Minnesota grandmothers,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
4. During the 1980s, several Americans were kidnapped in Beirut by
(a) O J Simpson,
(b) the king of Sweden,
(c) the pope and a gang of Cardinals,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
5. In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon was blown up, killing 220 Marines, by
(a) a Domino's Pizza delivery man,
(b) the president of the Southern Baptist Convention,
(c) Catherine Zeta-Jones,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
6. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70-year-old American passenger thrown overboard in his wheelchair by
(a) Sugar Ray Leonard,
(b) your next door neighbor,
(c) the Little Mermaid,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
7. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens and a U.S. Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by
(a) Captain Kangaroo,
(b)Walt Disney,
(c) Mother Teresa,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
8. In 1988, Pan American Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb in midair by
(a) Butch Cassidy,
(b) the Sundance Kid,
(c) the Tooth Fairy,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
9. The World Trade Center was bombed the first time in 1993 by
(a) Stonewall Jackson,
(b) Michael Jordan,
(c) Winston Churchill,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
10. In 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by
(a) Santa Claus,
(b) your sister's cat's grandmother's first owner's son's basketball coach's ex-wife,
(c) the World Wrestling Federation,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
11. On September 11, 2001, airliners were hijacked to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by
(a) Bugs Bunny,
(b) Bob the Tomato,
(c) Ricky Martin,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
12. In 2002, Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal was kidnapped and beheaded by
(a) Bonnie and Clyde,
(b) the Michelin man,
(c) Barney Fife,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
13. In July of 2005, several targets were attacked in central London, killing 52 persons, by
(a) the Orkin Man,
(b) Margaret Thatcher,
(c) Mr. Goodwrench,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
add the USS Cole, Nick Berg's beheading and the Barcelona bombings
"Were the passengers correct?'
When everyone is watching you, you should be on your best behavior. If your best behavior has a cultural ceiling, say urinating in the isle, you should avoid contact with civilized people.
If I have to drive in certain areas of Baltimore, It's common sense to have my doors locked and my confederate flag furled. If I get on a plane loaded with Muslims, I don't need to to be told to stash my Star of David for the duration.
If I'm an African American and I really don't like being pulled over by the cops all the time, maybe I'll ditch the gangster clothes, subwoofer,gold teeth & chains,car, dope,weapons and expired plates. And say "Sir".
If I'm a Muslim and I insist on wearing a beard and a diaper on my head while I read the Koran out loud, perhaps I shouldn't board an EL AL jet.
Damn, I almost scored 100%.
Blew it on Mother Teresa.
if her husband were to buy a cowboy hat and some boots noone would ever suspect him of being a terrorist ever again.
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