UK Muslim pilot ordered off transatlantic flight

[sonz]

A British Muslim pilot of Pakistani origin said that he was asked to leave a transatlantic flight minutes before take-off, The Belfast Telegraph reported.

Amar Ashraf, 28, said he felt “demoralized and humiliated" after a stewardess asked him to leave the flight from Manchester to Newark. He was then questioned by armed police officers who asked him if he knew why the U.S. government wanted him off the flight.

Ashraf was then forced to return home and paid £800 for an alternative Virgin flight two days later.

Ashraf, who was returning to his job as a pilot for one of Continental's partner airlines in the US, said he was asked to leave the flight because he had a “Muslim-sounding” name, adding that his “racial profile” prevented him from flying on 10 August, the first day of the heightened security alert at British airports.

"I guess I just meet the profile. They told me they weren't taking any passengers on standby but I think it was racial profiling. I was the only person asked to get off and can't believe there weren't others on standby tickets. I think as a Muslim I was an easy target. I understand the reason for the delays but I feel this was discrimination," he said.

Ashraf said that he’d file an official complaint with Continental Airlines, with whom he was traveling, as well as with the U.S. authorities.

An American official said Ashraf’s name wasn’t on the “manifest” list, which includes the names of all passengers flying from the United Kingdom to the United States.

British Muslim leaders have warned that judging people by their appearance would be counterproductive. Last week, one of Britain’s most senior Muslim police officers, Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Ali Desai, warned that passenger profiling could create a new crime of "flying while Asian".

Ashraf’s complaint is the recent in a series of incidents in which Muslim or Asian/Middle Eastern people have been asked to leave flights.

• Last Wednesday, two Muslim men, of Asian or Middle Eastern appearance, were asked to abandon a flight from Malaga to Manchester, after other passengers refused to board the plane, claiming that the two men were behaving suspiciously. Both men were questioned by police after they left the flight.

• A British Muslim passenger was separated from his family last Thursday in the U.S., where he was questioned by U.S. immigration officials and deported to the UK.

• Two British women on a flight from Spain to the UK complained about flying with a “bearded Muslim” man, even though he had been security checked twice, according to a Website used by commercial airline pilots.

• Last week, an airport terminal in West Virginia was evacuated and a Pakistani woman was interrogated by the FBI after security checks wrongly detected explosive liquids in her hand luggage.

• A Muslim doctor was ordered off a United Airlines flight in the U.S. last week after reciting prayers that were regarded as “suspicious” by passengers. Dr Ahmed Farooq said the incident was tantamount to "institutionalized discrimination".

Many of Britain's 1.7 million Muslims have complained of being unfairly targeted by the police after last years’ bomb attacks on London’s transport systems. Since 2000, UK police have detained more than 700 people, many of them Muslims, under the government’s tough anti-terrorism laws. Only a few of those arrested were tried, while the vast majority have been released without charge.

In the U.S., where more than 4.5 million Muslims live, reports of discrimination against Muslims sharply increased in the first six months after 9/11, fell in 2002, but climbed again after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The number of assault or other discriminatory complaints filed with CAIR increased from 1,019 in 2003 to 1,972 in 2005.

AlJazeera

[Isaac]

racism is alive and spreading fast in the 21st century. And they say, this is not a war against Islam. What next being taken on a flight for having your trousers above your ankles?

[Trumble]

racism is alive and spreading fast in the 21st century. And they say, this is not a war against Islam. What next being taken on a flight for having your trousers above your ankles?

It's not "racism", its fear. The only way to end this increasingly ridiculous situation is to end that fear by ending its multitude of causes.

[Isaac]

no it is racism, when the only reason, why this pilot was take off the flight was dwn t the sole at of his name. was it racism or fear when black people were beaten and not allowed to sit on the white owned buses in south africa? it the same thing being repeated but with a much more sinicter excuse. an excuse that allows not one muslim to bee seen wtout susupision. the way the media nand the govenmernt have gone about this has led people with ignorant minds to belive all muslim are or have sinicter motives for boarding a flight. if they are so scared, why te hell dont they get of the flight, instead of using a mob culture just like the fra right gorups to further alienate people.

[Woodrow]

Yes Racism does play a very large part in it. However it seems to be Racism + at least one more factor. If it was being Muslim alone all Muslims would be harassed. But, as it is some Muslims are not harassed. It would help if we could identify the other factors as to why some ae singled out and others are ignored.

Is it the ones with the highest Imam being selected?
The ones from specific countries?
Because of skin color?
Specific language groups?

It would be interesting to see what all of the ones who have been harassed have in common besides being Muslm. Perhaps if we knew that; very specific charges of discrimination could be filed and bring an end to it.

[Isaac]

i was reading an article about the two asian that were taken off a flight from manchester. It was a good articel, it was kind of good to see them laugh it off, and it takes alot to do that when being humilated in such a way because of their colour. I do agree fear does play a role in it. But is it fear to subject people to such humilation due to ones fear of ignorance. Some people have a fear of flying, does it mean that they should not try to overcome their fear. Will they remian fearful for the rest of their lives.,If that is the case then they have let the terrorists win.

some of the resons which i have gatherd on which people are perceived as terrorist and singled out are because of:

They have a muslim name
they look asian/arabic
the speak a foregin language
they have long hair
they were reading a quran
they were sweating - may be just after they had done their wudu
they did not ask for an anlcoholic beverage
they did not sleep on the flight
they were fidling about wuth the air vents above the seat
they were wearing a leather coat

i think this is what they may had in common. hey my grandma does all the above apart from the leather coat and long wavy hear. she barely gets out the house, but hey she fits the criteria so, might just need to keep an eye out for her

[Snowflake]

Yes Racism does play a very large part in it. However it seems to be Racism + at least one more factor. If it was being Muslim alone all Muslims would be harassed. But, as it is some Muslims are not harassed. It would help if we could identify the other factors as to why some ae singled out and others are ignored.

Is it the ones with the highest Imam being selected?
The ones from specific countries?
Because of skin color?
Specific language groups?

It would be interesting to see what all of the ones who have been harassed have in common besides being Muslm. Perhaps if we knew that; very specific charges of discrimination could be filed and bring an end to it.

Yes, I think a practicing muslim would appear more of a 'threat' than a westernised one for obvious reasons. And in the case of filing discrimination charges, the need to take safety precautions would be seen as an overriding factor and the case dismissed.

This sort of harrassment is just the tip of the iceberg. For muslims in the west things will never be the same again.

[Trumble]

was it racism or fear when black people were beaten and not allowed to sit on the white owned buses in south africa?

It was racism. But none of those South African blacks tried to blow up those buses or fly aeroplanes into buildings. It is fear of that makes people afraid, not people speaking Arabic or reading the Qur'an.

OK, there is probably an element of racism in this, and a large part of the cause is hysteria whipped up by both press and governments. But this was not happening prior to 9/11, and would not be happening if 9/11 and the July bombings in London hadn't happened. Islamicist terrorism is also a cause that must be removed for this sort of thing to stop.

[Isaac]

It was racism. But """""none of those South African blacks tried to blow up those buses or fly aeroplanes into buildings"""""". It is fear of that makes people afraid, not people speaking Arabic or reading the Qur'an.

None of those that were taken off the flight were planning to put a plane through a building. yes it is fear, fear instilled by the governments war to alientae muslims, and make them sitting targets for such mob culture based racism. and yes the media is the biggest factor in portraying suhc racism. racism found on fear and hate. generated by the media.