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 ...
"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."
Just doin' what us Americans won't do, and tryin' to figure out who to overpower then hijack the plane...
Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood said it was disgraceful the pair seemed to have been judged on their skin colour.
**
No, Mahmood, they were apparently behaving suspiciously. Better safe than sorry. If they were so innocent, why was the plane searched after their passports had been examined?
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.
**
Well said!
I have a friend who was born in Lebanon, is Christian and does a lot of air travel on her job.
She constantly gets pulled out of line, and laughs about it.
During her first flight after 9-11, there was a Middle-Eastern man on the flight with her, and she said she and her boss "watched him like a hawk" for the whole flight.
"BTW, I have never heard of Portuguese being mistaken for anything other than Spanish. And in my neighborhood, we know Portuguese."
I have always thought that Spanish and Portuguese were almost identical when spoken. However, not the case for some. Maybe the point here should be that if you are going to throw someone out of a store or off of a plane for speaking Arabic, you should at least be sure that they are really speaking Arabic.
Yes you are. You can search on FR and find links from last year. New material from the Stasi archives and from Bulgaria appears to decisevly tie the Soviets, via their Bulgarian associates, to the deed.
I don't remember now, but some of the money that Agca used may have been passed via Iran. However, in all likelihood that was just a way for the Soviets to make it harder to find any links betwen them and Agca.
It would take them under one minute to shave their bears.
&&
Wow! They must be tiny bears! :-)
(I'm just funnin' ya'. We all make typos now and then, but yours just tickled my funny bone.)
Great T-shirt slogan!
Some of you folks may live in areas where you work and play with muzlims...I don't...
I'm afraid if I walked onto a plane and saw someone who appeared to be muzlim, I'd get right back off...
A few weeks ago, I was at one of the local 'box' stores...This person comes walking thru the parking lot...He's talking on a cell phone and he's got what must be a bedspread wrapped around his head...Looked like a large beehive...
I said to my wife (within earshot of this guy), hey, there there's one of them rag heads...He didn't turn around and look...I was surprised... The parking lot was full of people and it seemed everone stopped, turned and stared as this guy went into the store...
You could feel and 'see' the tension...The people are cautious...
For the most part he takes it well. It tends to get worse in the summer because he works construction on off days, and gets dark. He laughed when the dry cleaner told him that he wouldn't clean any Muslim clothes, mostly because they were my clothes not his, and because there is a dry cleaner on every corner.
His point has always been that there is a difference between being vigilant and being hysterical. Assuming every dark skinned man is a Muslim terrorist falls into the latter category. I wish I had greater confidence in passengers being able to tell the difference.
They weren't being judged by the color of their skin, they were being judged by the percieved content of their character.
You are a jackass.
You probably saw a Hindu. Just goes to show how many people don't know what a "muzlim" looks like.
> Not so easy anymore is it boys?
Right on! "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me..."
When I was living in Somalia, back in the 80s, the list of things that you could not wear and things you could not do in public was as long as your arm.
They no doubt wanted to get a look at the dumbass who was making ethnic slurs.
" If they were so innocent, why was the plane searched after their passports had been examined?"
That was a fairly obvious move, if only to reassure the passengers, so I don't think we can draw conclusions of their guilt from that, especially as they were not detained and were allowed to board a later flight.
Could be...I've been called worse...
Well, since these two men were put on a later flight, I would guess the passengers were "wrong", in as much as these two were not (apparently) terrorists.
But I will not fault them for it. Frankly, their antennae were up, and that's enough for me. We want people to be cautious and observant. When passengers actually use their eyes and minds to preserve their own safety, I am all for it.
For every terrorist, perhaps a thousand will be profiled "incorrectly". But if people are constrained by PC, and that one-in-a-thousand happens to be on your flight, it will ruin your whole day.
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