Thread: Two men kept from boarding US plane after speaking Arabic

Have to say I feel a little embarrassed for Americans after reading that....

...is the fuel volatile because it comes from the ME?

never trust a swarthy or a fuzzy wuzzy and you wont go far wrong in life.

Problem is, I married one.

I think hearing 2 men speaking in Arabic while boarding a plane in the west would understandably cause some alarm amongst passengers. It may not be entirely proportional to the real risk involved but it is understandable. It is also not unreasonable to briefly detain them for questioning and possibly in order to conduct a more thorough search of their belongings which is what seems to have happened. If its all good then they should be furnished with apologies for the intrusion and thanks for the cooperation etc. but they should understand that the initial concern and the security response is reasonable even if they take some measure of offence. Life does not come with a guarantee of freedom from being offended. They may choose to characterise it as racially biased treatment but racial profiling is a reasonable tactic in the fight against the abundantly real threat of islamist terrorism. To avoid being offended, if it is such a problem for them, they should speak English or keep quiet while boarding aircraft.

^What total, complete, fucking bullshit. So if you are in, for example, an airport in Dubai, and you and a friend are speaking English, you should be subjected to the same treatment.

Probably the most imbecilic post I have seen on TD.....and there have been thousands of contenders.

Fucking retarded!

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

So if you are in, for example, an airport in Dubai, and you and a friend are speaking English, you should be subjected to the same treatment.

No, because the middle east is not under threat from western terrorism so it is not reasonable treatment.

Originally Posted by Looper

the middle east is not under threat from western terrorism

^^Not English only. You can speak any lingo you want except Arabic or anything that sounds like it while you are in a boarding queue unless you want to increase your risk of a frisk due to the understandable alarm you are causing to other passengers.

Originally Posted by Looper

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

So if you are in, for example, an airport in Dubai, and you and a friend are speaking English, you should be subjected to the same treatment.

No, because the middle east is not under threat from western terrorism.

Actually, it is.
For quite some time now.

Originally Posted by Neverna

Originally Posted by taxexile

you just dont know who you might be sitting next to.

That's par for the course on planes unless you travel in a group and manage to get seats next to each other.

God forbid those Americans getting on the Tube in London! Best take ear plugs so as not to hear any foreign languages!




.

Lots of "swarthy types" on the London Tube.
Tax will have a heart attack if he ever makes it from Aye-Up county to the capital!

Originally Posted by Looper

^^Not English only. You can speak any lingo you want except Arabic or anything that sounds like it while you are in a boarding queue unless you want to increase your risk of a frisk due to the understandable alarm you are causing to other passengers.

That is simply idiocy. Sorry, over the years I have never taken issue with your posts, but your posts on this subject are just moronic. Read them again in the morning, and then hang your head.....

Originally Posted by Looper

^^Not English only. You can speak any lingo you want except Arabic or anything that sounds like it while you are in a boarding queue unless you want to increase your risk of a frisk due to the understandable alarm you are causing to other passengers.

I suggest the complaining passengers don't have the right not to be offended by the harsh sound of Arabic.

in a country where one can be shot for being black, being banned from a plane for speaking arabic could be seen as positive progress.

Originally Posted by Looper

I think hearing 2 men speaking in Arabic while boarding a plane in the west would understandably cause some alarm amongst passengers. It may not be entirely proportional to the real risk involved but it is understandable. It is also not unreasonable to briefly detain them for questioning and possibly in order to conduct a more thorough search of their belongings which is what seems to have happened. If its all good then they should be furnished with apologies for the intrusion and thanks for the cooperation etc. but they should understand that the initial concern and the security response is reasonable even if they take some measure of offence. Life does not come with a guarantee of freedom from being offended. They may choose to characterise it as racially biased treatment but racial profiling is a reasonable tactic in the fight against the abundantly real threat of islamist terrorism. To avoid being offended, if it is such a problem for them, they should speak English or keep quiet while boarding aircraft.

One can only assume you have taken some sort of narcotic overdose that has left all but one of your brain cells in an insensate condition.

Originally Posted by Hans Mann

New York (AFP) - Two men were kept from boarding a flight from Chicago to Philadelphia this week because they were speaking Arabic, one of just several incidents reflecting the paranoia sparked by the Paris attacks.

Maher Khalil and Anas Ayyad were told by a gate agent at Midway Airport that they wouldn't be allowed on the plane because a fellow passenger had overheard them speaking Arabic -- and was afraid to fly with them.

Ultimately, the two friends reportedly of Palestinian origin and in their late 20s, got on the Southwest flight Wednesday night, but only after being questioned by airport security and police, called by Khalil, who told the local NBC television affiliate he didn't know what else to do.

Once on board, Khalil told NBC 5 that some passengers made him open a white box he was carrying -- filled, it turns out, with sweets.

"So I shared my baklava with them," he was quoted as saying.

Contacted by AFP, Southwest Airlines declined to comment.

Similar incidents have reportedly taken place on other US domestic flights in the wake of last week's attacks in the French capital that killed 130 people and have been claimed by Islamic State extremists. The group has also made threats against US cities.

Also at Chicago's Midway Wednesday, six men identified by fellow passengers as being of Middle Eastern descent were removed from a Southwest flight bound for Houston after they asked people around them to switch seats, causing a commotion, the local ABC affiliate reported.

In Florida on Thursday, a Spirit Airlines flight en route to Minneapolis turned around and returned to Fort Lauderdale after a young passenger "heard what she believed to be a conversation during which the subject made a remark about blowing up the plane," according to a police report quoted by the Sun Sentinel newspaper.

Once back on the ground, Yaniv Abotbul, a US citizen born and raised in Israel, was interrogated for five hours, his lawyer Mark Eiglarsh told a news conference.

Abotbul was let go, with the police report quoted by the Sun Sentinel saying "intensive interviews revealed no actual threat was made to the flight and the incident appears to be a miscommunication from a juvenile witness."

His lawyer has demanded an apology both from the airline and authorities involved.

Spirit Airlines did not respond to requests for comment.

The same carrier was implicated in another incident, in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday.

A woman and three men described by fellow passengers as being of Middle Eastern descent were escorted off a plane headed to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport when a witness reported suspicious activity to the flight crew, the Baltimore Sun reported, citing police.

In the end, police determined that one of the passengers had simply been watching a news report on a smartphone, according to the newspaper.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the individuals were racially profiled.

"These passengers were inconvenienced and forced to endure humiliating treatment and invasive questioning for no apparent substantial reason other than because their perceived ethnicity caused alarm in a fellow passenger," a spokeswoman told the newspaper.

Two men temporarily kept off US flight after speaking Arabic

How far are we away from overreacting like this in Europe ?

Why are we always pointing the finger at the U.S. ? I'll bet you we will soon do the same. Europeans always copy what americans do

Originally Posted by Neverna

^^^ Complete nonsense, Looper. It's not reasonable at all and not understandable - unless you make airports in the USA English only zones. Until then ...

IIRC, the largest single nationality of IS recruits are Tunisian (3,000 of them), who mainly speak French. The perps in Paris this year were French (and Belgian?). More French speakers. Better start worrying about French speakers!

Or pilots with a burka

Why do immigrants never speak softly ?

^

That's a very good question Blue.

Yesterday I was coming home From chat-U-Chat weekend market and these foking Seppos where talking up a storm.

Foking tossers thought they were in a football field any every other coont on the MRT wanted to know what they were talking about.

Worst part was they were Asians but speaking fluent Septic.

Quite disturbing it was Blue.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

That is simply idiocy. Sorry, over the years I have never taken issue with your posts, but your posts on this subject are just moronic. Read them again in the morning, and then hang your head.....

Do you accept racial profiling as an unfortunate but necessary part of the fight against terrorism in the west?

If so then how do you identify targets for increased attention? I would say language is as useful as appearance.

If they were dressed in Afghan hats and robes but saying nothing they would likely attract extra attention. I would say speaking in Arabic or another middle eastern sounding language is likely to increase the possibility of additional attention from security and that this is not unreasonable.

Originally Posted by Looper

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

That is simply idiocy. Sorry, over the years I have never taken issue with your posts, but your posts on this subject are just moronic. Read them again in the morning, and then hang your head.....

Do you accept racial profiling as an unfortunate but necessary part of the fight against terrorism in the west?

If so then how do you identify targets for increased attention? I would say language is as useful as appearance.

If they were dressed in Afghan hats and robes but saying nothing they would likely attract extra attention. I would say speaking in Arabic or another middle eastern sounding language is likely to increase the possibility of additional attention from security and that this is not unreasonable.

According to the most recent US Census Bureau survey, as reported by the Smithsonian magazine, 21 percent of Americans speak a language other than English at home. Italian and Polish fell out of the top ten for the first time, replaced with French Creole and ARABIC.

Your premise is absolutely idiotic, and I can't believe you're still beating that drum.

And, I've yet to see racial profiling in the US identify a terrorist. It's simply a tool to keep minorities out of rich. white neighborhoods unless they're mowing the lawn.

There are over a MILLION native Arabic speakers legally in the US.

What if they dressed in Afghan traditional clothes or burkas and arabic robes?

Do you think some increased attention of the security forces should be directed at people who draw attention to their middle eastern identity?

You can only criticise the actions of the airline and security if you think racial profiling has no place in the fight against terrorism. However, I think it is an unfortunate but reasonable method even though it is contentious due to its association with racist behaviour.

The west can be proud to have led the world in dis-empowering racism as a belief system so for our progressive society it is particularly painful to have to give ground in some sense through racial profiling in the fight against terror but I think the practical needs of the situation outweigh the temporary setback in terms of social progress w.r.t. general views on racial equality and cultural respect.

Originally Posted by Looper

What if they dressed in Afghan traditional clothes or burkas and arabic robes?

Then they are almost certainly not terrorists. What half assed terrorist would carry out an operation on Main St, or Wall St, dressed like that? So you would just fail to see the real danger. I'm sure some department of homeland insecurity has a job for you.

Originally Posted by Looper

What if they dressed in Afghan traditional clothes or burkas and arabic robes?

Do you think some increased attention of the security forces should be directed at people who draw attention to their middle eastern identity?

You can only criticise the actions of the airline and security if you think racial profiling has no place in the fight against terrorism. However, I think it is an unfortunate but reasonable method even though it is contentious due to its association with racist behaviour.

The west can be proud to have led the world in dis-empowering racism as a belief system so for our progressive society it is particularly painful to have to give ground in some sense through racial profiling in the fight against terror but I think the practical needs of the situation outweigh the temporary setback in terms of social progress w.r.t. general views on racial equality and cultural respect.

One more time: The United States is a country comprised totally, other than Native Americans/Indians, of people who originally immigrated from elsewhere.

Americans can't tell a Sikh from an Arab......just ask one of the Indian Sikhs who has been the victim of an unprovoked attack in the US. They wouldn't know 'traditional Afghan dress' from a fucking tutu.

Just because an American doesn't wear the American national dress of jeans and a t-shirt doesn't give the government the right to start rounding them up or forcing all Muslims to wear green crescents on their clothes.

Your argument is imbecilic, your persistence in trying to present it is quite stunning. My impression of you as a poster...and person...has dropped considerably.

I will no longer speak to your stupidity.