Muslim doctor wants apology from U.S. airline
A Winnipeg doctor is demanding an official apology and compensation from United Airlines after being kicked off a flight in the U.S. this week, an incident he has characterized as “institutionalized discrimination.” Dr. Ahmed Farooq, a Muslim, was escorted off an airplane in Denver on Tuesday. According to Farooq, reciting his evening prayers was interpreted by one passenger as an activity that was suspicious.
I find it truly amazing that in a country such as ours, which prides itself on being the most technologically and economically advanced nation in the world, we can stoop to such depths as to allow a drunk passenger to get someone kicked off an airplane for the high crime and misdemeanor of…wait for it…FLYING WHILE MUSLIM. Yes, you read that right. Of course, in our post-9.11 “shoot-first-ask-questions-later” national paranoia, the simple act of being Muslim is enough to place you under suspicition (After all, didn’t your kind cause 9.11? Hmm????) This apparently gives flight crews the right to remove someone from a flight simply because he was saying his prayers? And how, exactly, is praying a threat to the safety of his fellow airline passengers? (And if praying is a crime, when do we begin booting Evangelical Christians from flights?)
Is this really who we want to be?
Of course, it IS easier, and a whole lot more satisfying, to single out Those Who Don’t Look, Act, and/or Believe Like Us, eh? After all, don’t they LOOK like terrorists?
While I can understand that some folks might be a wee bit paranoid and even in some cases hypervigilant, seeing threats where none in fact exist, the mere idea that a person can be put off a flight for…well, no good reason is repulsive. Our nation fear and paranoia does not provide us with a license to tar all Muslims as potential terrorists. Treating Muslims as potential threats simply waiting for the right time and place to strike is to ignore reality. Hello? Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Paul Hill, Eric Rudolph…all terrorists, and all White Christians.
“The whole situation is just really frustrating,” Farooq said. “It makes you uneasy, because you realize you have to essentially watch every single thing you say and do, and it’s worse for people who are of colour, who are identifiable as a minority.”
Farooq said the allegation came from a passenger who appeared drunk and had previously threatened him during the trip.
When flight personnel were alerted, the 27-year-old radiology resident and two colleagues — a man and a woman — were taken off their flight. They had been returning from a conference in San Francisco.
Well, if Farooq hadn’t been guilty of “travelling while swarthy”, this never would have happened, would it?
Farooq said that even officials from the Transportation Security Administration soon realized the flight crew had overreacted, but by the time that conclusion had been reached the trio were forced to stay in Denver for the night and catch a flight the next day — at their own expense. “There’s no recourse,” Farooq said. “There’s no way to really be able to talk to anybody to really be able to reason it out. The police officers who talked to me afterwards and subsequent officials within the first three to five minutes, they were like, ‘You know what? The crew made a mistake. We apologize that they took you off. They overreacted.’”
Sadly, there’s no recourse, and no accountability- and to add insult to injury, Farooq and his companions had to bear the added expenses incurred by their enforced layover in Denver. It’s one thing to admit to a mistake, but wouldn’t it be the decent thing to do to cover the expenses incurred?
So, what’s the message being sent here? Well, clearly it’s that if you’re unfortunate enough to be one of Those Who Don’t Look, Act and/or Believe Like Us, you in fact ARE a second-class citizen, and if a good, God-fearing White American is scared of you, then by God you’re going to put off the plane- no questions asked.
If you’re put off a flight every now and then…well, that’s just a small place to be paid to keep us good, God-fearing White Folk safe. And if you’re stupid enough to say your evening prayers on board an American airliner, well, you pretty much deserve whatever you get…unless you’re a Christian, in which case you can pray all you want
Brandon Borrman of United Airlines told the Winnipeg Free Press this week that the airline is obliged to take any allegations threatening passenger safety seriously, particularly in the wake of last week’s arrests in the alleged bomb plot on flights from Britain to the U.S.
“Whenever these types of claims are made we have a duty to investigate,” Borrman said. “Our flight crews are trained to make safety the No. 1 priority.”
Uh, no…apparently your flight crews are trained to overreact and treat Those Who Don’t Look, Act, and/or Believe Like Us as if they’re seond-class citizens and terrorists-in-waiting. Eve when they have done nothing wrong and clearly pose no threat to their fellow passengers.
“Fly the Friendly Skies?” Yeah, right….
