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
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
