Posted on 08/20/2006 2:10:04 PM PDT by World_Events
Passengers on a Manchester-bound flight have described how two men were removed from the plane because other travellers thought they were speaking Arabic. Heath Schofield, a passenger on the flight from Malaga, described it as being a "bit like Chinese whispers".
Monarch Airlines said passengers had demanded the men were removed because they were acting suspiciously.
Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood said it was disgraceful the pair seemed to have been judged on their skin colour.
The men - reported to be of Asian or Middle Eastern appearance - were taken from Wednesday's flight ZB 613 and questioned but were allowed to fly back to the UK later in the week.
Refusal to board
Mr Schofield, who was travelling with his wife Jo and their children, said: "We all started boarding the flight.
Heath and Jo Schofield were on the Manchester flight
"Our daughter noticed a couple of guys that were perhaps acting a bit strange. They went to the front of the queue, went to the back of the queue, and then they went and sat down by themselves.
"Anyway, we got on the plane and we boarded and it became apparent after we were already supposed to be flying that several of the passengers had refused to board the craft.
"A few rumours went round, it was a little bit like Chinese whispers, and then some more people decided they were getting off."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
I'm really surprised your husband has this problem. Virtually half the population of NYC and many other places is from PR or RD, and I honestly can't imagine why anybody would think he was a Muslim. Furthermore, I can't imagine him doing anything that would make people uncomfortable.
In July/August of 2001, I was in Spain, and I happened to have occasion to take the trains around Valencia a fair amount. On one occasion, I saw a very diverse group of people board the trains at various stations - one was a semi-military looking light-skinned ME looking man with close-cropped hair, dressed in good business casual (pressed khakis); 2 were ME looking guys who were not as well dressed, and 1 was a black man I assumed to be Senegalese, with a briefcase of the type normally used for selling counterfeit watches. They assembled on the train and struck me as an odd group, because they were so different from each other. Then I realized after a bit that they were speaking English, in their fashion (not very good, but they could understand each other). They were talking about papers, and I assumed that they were illegal immigrants trying to get legalized, so I picked up my (Spanish) paper and went back to ignoring them. Later, I discovered that Mohammed Atta had been in that same place, at that same time, and I have always been convinced that the reason none of the investigators have been able to find out where he met his co-conspirators in Spain is because he met them on the train. They assembled one by one or two, discussed their issue for about three stops, and then left one by one.
So there was reason for these passengers to be concerned. But I am very sorry they are concerned about your husband, and I cannot understand why they should be worried.
thanks for the nod...It's my one-time scoop for FR.
And I'll repost for this section of thread:
I can't help wondering if those two fellows weren't traveling to
Manchester for a particular reason.
Which can be found in the last sentence of the linked article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1686661/posts
There's a guy in Arizona doing life for killing a Sikh gas station owner he had mistaken for a Muslim not long after 9/11. He had been sentenced to death, but the Arizona Supreme Court recently overturned that sentence because of his low IQ and questionable mental health.
We aren't in NY, which probably explains it. We live in Georgia, and although it is getting more diverse, there are still many in this area that don't know Portugeuse from Arabic and still think anyone with dark skin is a foreigner. By far, a majority of Georgians would not be so ignorant, but it only takes a few, and he seems to run into more than most.
Your story made the hairs on my arm stand up. How creepy that you were possibly that close to such a monster. I always want to think that someone so evil would be obvious, and you would be able to tell right away. I know that it isn't this way in reality. That story will give me nightmares.
"A few rumours went round, it was a little bit like Chinese whispers..."
Isn't that a rcist comment in itself? A pc journal shouldn't be using such phrases
I get out enough for me...While watching newsreels of Iraq, it's common to see people with the rags on their heads...I assume these people aren't Sikhs...
That's true. I live in North Florida now and I know that people in Georgia probably wouldn't recognize Portuguese (which is more guttural than Spanish).
Actually, I think I did notice something about these men on the train, because otherwise I wouldn't have remembered it. After 9/11, when the authorities were trying to figure out how Mohammed Atta had managed to meet with these people in Spain at a place nobody could detect, I wrote to the FBI. I never heard from them, but I am hoping they put "meeting on mass transit" in their database.
Hi George76
Where can i find the test to print out? I had come across the post before but didn't get a chance to look at it.
Is there more to it than 13 questions?
Thanks
1FG45
Hi 1FG45,
These 13 questions is what I know about...plus a few recent additions like :
the USS Cole, Nick Berg's beheading and the Barcelona bombings ...
But being a practical man, I will not make a complaint without offering a solution to this gross and bigoted ethnic and religious injustice.
Muslims should travel by camel. Until I say otherwise. Being a fair man, and well known for same in my community, I think this is the best solution. When the Sons of Allah design and build an airplane entirely on their own from the ground up, I will accept their individual applications for flights on our airplanes.
Can't we all just get along? Of course we can. Our forefathers divided the world rather neatly into Christendom and Islam. Muslims should remain on their portion of the planet, where they may continue their pastoral pursuits, marry inumerable cousins, and raise hordes of enthusiastic jihadists, with multiple physical and mental defects. Call me when they reform their religion into something that is something more than the 14-century pestilence it has been.
Indeed...not surprising for someone who'd not only confuse a Sikh with a Muslim, but go out of their way to act on it.
"I wrote to the FBI. I never heard from them, but I am hoping they put "meeting on mass transit" in their database."
I hope they did too, but my confidence is low. Don't you wonder whether they would have listened to you, if you had heard something about the WTC plot on that train ride, and reported it to them? My cynical side says that they would have written you off as crazy, and really regretted it later.
Do Heath and Jo Schoefield look just like Peg and Al Bundy to anyone else?
Don't forget:
Sgt. Hasan Akbar is accused of stealing the grenades and attacking fellow members of the 101st just days into the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. In addition to the two people killed, 14 soldiers were injured.
Akbar, 33, is a member of the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., but his trial was moved to Fort Bragg, home of the division's higher command, the 18th Airborne Corps.
and John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, The DC snipers.
> Do Heath and Jo Schoefield look just like Peg and Al Bundy to anyone else?
Hmmmm. Now that you mention it...
Yes, they probably would have. But then, I myself probably wouldn't have believed what I had heard, either. It's hard to remember what life was like before 9/11.
No offence, but people in Georgia are not stupid. What a snotty remark. At least we never leave hanging chads and vote for the wrong candidate as many Floridian did in 2000.
That is not what you described you said it looked like a beehive. That is not an Iraq or Arab headgear.
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