I don't see where the passengers were innappropriately dresesd or where it states that they were muslims. In fact, the only thing that I see is that they might have been middle eastern or asian, and someone thought they were speaking Arabic. This is the problem with letting passengers decide who can get on a flight.
My husband Has been accused of being arabic and a muslim many times. He is PuertoRican and Catholic. If someone doesn't want to fly with him, they are free to get off the plane. They should not have the right to have him removed from the plane. I think the airlines acted innappropriately.
There was an article yesterday that said these guys were wearing heavy leather jackets that the passengers felt was inappropriate for the season.
More information: Mutiny on Flight 613
This is what people are supposed to do. I am sorry if your husband is harrassed, but these are the times we live in. If I were him, I would take care to dress appropriately and not act in such a way that would arouse suspicion.
No, you wouldn't find that in a piece on the BBC site. Here is the original article from the Daily Mail:
I would suggest then that he wear his crucifix prominently and perhaps that would allay people's fears. In this case it wasn't just what the men looked like, it was their behavior and what they were wearing.
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.