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Two Men Chucked Off a Plane for Being Asian, Speaking Arabic and wearing Jackets
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
What you you think of this story?
Were the passengers well within their rights?
Is it right to for one group of passengers to insist a minority group get chucked off just perhaps cos they look Asian and can stand the heat? or could it just be that people from countries with hotter climates are simply able to stand the heat better?
I think if the men in question went through the same security checks as everyone else on the plane then they should be let on.
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=KI2028200C&news_headline=asian_passengers_thrown_off_flight
Asian passengers thrown off flight
Sunday, 20th August 2006, 11:55
The "sad and shocking" case of two men being thrown off a flight because they looked Asian is proof that terrorists are succeeding, the leader of the Muslim Parliament of Britain said today.
The two men were asked to leave the Monarch Airlines Malaga to Manchester flight after fellow passengers became suspicious of their appearance and refused to fly unless the pair were kicked off.
The pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers, speaking what was believed to be Arabic and repeatedly checking their watches.
They were escorted from the plane after fellow passengers objected to them, but were later cleared again by security and booked onto a later flight.
Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, of the Muslim Parliament of Britain, said this was an example of what Met Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei had warned could become a new 'offence' - 'travelling while Asian'.
Dr Siddiqui said: "Obviously this is the kind of thing that is likely to happen if we go down the route we are going down. We have got to find a better way where somebody's look is not the basis for this kind of action.
"It has to be more intelligence led. There must be other ways of finding out information, otherwise innocent people will be the victims of this policy and this will add on to the hatred.
"The greatest danger is feel is that the extremists have succeeded in convincing Muslims and Arabs that the war on terror isn't a war on terror but a war on Islam and Muslims. This is where they are succeeding and where they will succeed, through these measures.
"This is also the effect of the media hype. People are being told that if someone is Arabic speaking or has a Muslim look then he poses a potential threat.
"This is an indication of the propaganda and the way these events have been portrayed."
Dr Siddiqui pointed out that none of those arrested over the alleged liquid bomb plot have been found guilty yet, adding: "They are alleged to have committed this crime but we have to wait.
"On both sides people are being instilled with fear of the other. Muslims and Arabs feel they have been singled out and are being made targets for a crime they have not committed.
"We have to come together, both sides. Both sides are victims. When 7/7 took place there was no distinction among the victims.
"The problem is that Muslims are doubly effected. They can be victims [of terror attacks] and then these events are used to demonise, marginalise and exclude them.
"I can see it getting worse. It is sad and shocking but there we are."
Were the passengers well within their rights?
Is it right to for one group of passengers to insist a minority group get chucked off just perhaps cos they look Asian and can stand the heat? or could it just be that people from countries with hotter climates are simply able to stand the heat better?
I think if the men in question went through the same security checks as everyone else on the plane then they should be let on.
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=KI2028200C&news_headline=asian_passengers_thrown_off_flight
Asian passengers thrown off flight
Sunday, 20th August 2006, 11:55
The "sad and shocking" case of two men being thrown off a flight because they looked Asian is proof that terrorists are succeeding, the leader of the Muslim Parliament of Britain said today.
The two men were asked to leave the Monarch Airlines Malaga to Manchester flight after fellow passengers became suspicious of their appearance and refused to fly unless the pair were kicked off.
The pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers, speaking what was believed to be Arabic and repeatedly checking their watches.
They were escorted from the plane after fellow passengers objected to them, but were later cleared again by security and booked onto a later flight.
Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, of the Muslim Parliament of Britain, said this was an example of what Met Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei had warned could become a new 'offence' - 'travelling while Asian'.
Dr Siddiqui said: "Obviously this is the kind of thing that is likely to happen if we go down the route we are going down. We have got to find a better way where somebody's look is not the basis for this kind of action.
"It has to be more intelligence led. There must be other ways of finding out information, otherwise innocent people will be the victims of this policy and this will add on to the hatred.
"The greatest danger is feel is that the extremists have succeeded in convincing Muslims and Arabs that the war on terror isn't a war on terror but a war on Islam and Muslims. This is where they are succeeding and where they will succeed, through these measures.
"This is also the effect of the media hype. People are being told that if someone is Arabic speaking or has a Muslim look then he poses a potential threat.
"This is an indication of the propaganda and the way these events have been portrayed."
Dr Siddiqui pointed out that none of those arrested over the alleged liquid bomb plot have been found guilty yet, adding: "They are alleged to have committed this crime but we have to wait.
"On both sides people are being instilled with fear of the other. Muslims and Arabs feel they have been singled out and are being made targets for a crime they have not committed.
"We have to come together, both sides. Both sides are victims. When 7/7 took place there was no distinction among the victims.
"The problem is that Muslims are doubly effected. They can be victims [of terror attacks] and then these events are used to demonise, marginalise and exclude them.
"I can see it getting worse. It is sad and shocking but there we are."
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Comments
Yeah that's what I was thinking as well, if you were planning something with over 1 Billion Muslims in the world you'd pick someone who didn't fit the usual profile to carry out your plots.
There's over 200 million people in Indonesia alone that are Muslim - more then any other country - wonder how that fits in with people's self styled profiling.
I seriously doubt many of the 150 passengers could even tell the difference between Arabic, Hindi or any of the other major languages spoken in Asia. As it is Arabic is the 5th most spoken language in the world.
Muslims, populated Spain for nearly 700 years so I bet there's a few people there that speak Arabic.
If I'd been in charge of that flight I'd have flown the two Asian men back and let the other 150 hitch hike!!
As long as everyone's been security checked in the same manner then it shouldn't matter what they look like or what they wear.
Yup.
It's getting to the same stage communist hysteria got with the Cold War by the looks of it.
God, at least that "threat" was real enough to matter. Gah... poor chaps. I hope they get compensated.
:yes: Like Indrid, I think I would've chucked off those passengers who objected to these men being on board.
If they were white or even chinese or anything except middle eastern at the moment then nothing would have come of it! Disgraceful.
ETA: Also, on the same kind of note, my girlfriends father is an Asian-African but he has a middle eastern/indian look about him, and he got called a terrorist in work the other day (taxi driver) because he wouldn't give someone a ride without money up front..
They also accuse him of stealing their jobs etc, complete piss take.
If they had bombs, how the fuck could they have got through security? I don't believe, after all that has happened recently and as a result of 9/11 that security at airports is that poor to not be able to spot explosives strapped to these guys' chests were they carrying bombs.
But they got through. They clearly weren't carrying anything they shouldn't have. To be perfectly honest, I don't blame the passengers who saw these guys and panicked. As an average Englishman who reads the papers and watches telly, I too would be scared of these guys! All we're told about Arab people these days is how they're all conspiring to kill us and whatnot, I'm not surprised the passengers acted the way they did. Just a shocking indictment on how well the BBC et al. have conducted their little propaganda hate campaign that such stories come out.
The blokes were taken to the police station and everything.
I can't see any justification for what happened on the plane. Yes, I understand people don't want to be blown to smithereenes by evil suicide bombers. Lord only knows I wouldn't. But to try and persecute two men like that simply because of the colour of their own skin is purely racist. Martin Luther King must be spinning in his grave. The passengers on that plane should hang their heads in shame.
"Everyone else on the plane was wearing flip flops and shorts, and these two men were wearing jumpers". I don't understand how that means they are part of an terrorist ring intent on destroying the Western world.
Even if I was stupid enough or naive enough to feel nervous about the situation and be prejudiced towards them, I wouldn't be stupid enough to think my fears were founded. Isn't that why we have airport security?
Probabaly the same ones I saw on TV as well - they said the Asian men looked uncomfortable and kept staring at the floor,... so would I if I had 150 pairs of eyes looking at me like I'm a terrorist
They said one woman in the crowd spoke Arabic and heard them speaking which is what started it - so why didn't they detained her as well for 2 or 3 days and interview her as well to see what she heard?
Those chaps were detained for several days they said.
Spot on!
trust me you'd have to be brave to even consider taking a rucksack on the tube around that time if you happened to have brown skin, i don't even really look asian (but then neither did menezes ay.......) but i remember getting a few dodgy looks when i'd open my bag and then the look of relief as i pulled out my book or mp3 player.........the messed up thing was i'd have the same initial reaction if i saw a 'darkie' get on the train, i just had to remind myself what a stupid preconception i'd been brainwashed with, fact is we live in a culture of fear.
I know a chap from Spain that lives in London (does not look Asian / Middle Eastern at all) just looks European and a gang of about 10 Black guys saw him walking down the street with a Rucksack, saw his bag and started chasing him saying you must be a Terrorist - from what I heard the gang broke both his legs.
I don't even believe for a second they believed he was a terrorist but people are looking for any excuse these days.
I worked with this German fella who must be in his 60's or 70's and he said this is what life was like when he was younger and World War 2 had just finished. But I suppose the big difference is you can just walk down the street in England and unless you start speaking and people hear your accent there's no way to tell if you're German or English.
And probabay the same thing in Northern Ireland between the two sets of Christians who were at war with one another.
And I imagine the situation in the USA is even worse, as people of South Asian or Middle Eastern origin are in such a minority and apart from a few presenters on CNN you'll probably not see many in the media, certainly far fewer then you would on UK TV.
people are scared of asian men because asian men keep trying to murder them.
Still, you didn't explain what I asked about: You said the community could do something. What could it do? Do you think that all Arabs know who the terrorists are and just don't tell?
It is up to the Islamic community to clamp down on the terrorists, and hand them over to the authorities, but they don't do that.
Men keep trying to rape women. That does not mean any man will try to jump on them.
Got it in one Kermit.
There are elements in the Muslim community who know more than they're letting on and, perhaps more importantly, don't want to accept their responsibilities.
From what I heard on the radio this lunchtime, a number of those who raised the alarm did so because their children were getting agitated. That perhaps makes it more understandable.
I also don't like this idea that airlines somehow have an obligation to cast moral judgement on people - frankly if a business accused me of being a racist I wouldn't use it again on principle.
Next time I go to Spain I'm going to demand all those who are wearing tracksuits or football shirts or sport a Croydon facelift be kicked out of the plane, lest they are chav scum bound to get pissed and aggresive on board and have the plane diverted. :rolleyes: