Posted on 08/20/2006 7:10:52 PM PDT by blam
Jet scare over Asian men 'helps terrorists'
By Sally Pook
(Filed: 21/08/2006)
An airline yesterday stood by its decision to remove two Asian men from a holiday jet bound for Britain despite criticism from a Muslim group.
The two passengers were asked to leave Monarch flight ZB613 from Malaga to Manchester, apparently because other passengers became alarmed that the men were wearing heavy clothing and kept checking their watches. Cabin crew informed the Spanish authorities of the passengers' fears and the men were taken off the flight.
One of the passengers told a Sunday newspaper: "Some of the older children, who had seen the terror alert on television, were starting to mutter things like 'Those two look like they are bombers'. Some of the passengers were in tears."
After security checks the men boarded a later flight.
Yesterday an Islamic human rights group blamed "ever-increasing Islamophobia".
Massoud Shadjareh, the chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: "It is counterproductive, not just because it is going to alienate people who are perceived to be Muslim, but also because terrorists have shown that they will make themselves look completely different to how people perceive them to look.
"By profiling people on the basis of ethnicity or religion we are actually endangering our lives."
Patrick Mercer, the Conservative homeland security spokesman, described the incident as a victory for terrorists.
"These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally. For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense."
Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham, said: "I think that what happened is just hugely irrational." Monarch confirmed that the men were removed, but would not give details of what they had done to arouse the fears of the other passengers.
Cuz these days I'm looking to be really, reallllllllly magnanimous.
I'm pretty sure there are a lot of eager do-gooders in the 83nd Airborne, too.
And the Marquis de Sade.
I really wish they'd stop call them "Asians". No one cared that these men were Asian, the problem was they were MUSLIM.
I fly real actual Asian carriers all the time without concern about plane loads of Japanese or Thai's. It's that pesky Muslim thing that is the issue here. Lets call a spade a spade and get away from all this PC nonsense.
We should be profiling terrorists. Because 100% of terrorists have been Muslims, they fit the profile 100% of the time. When Muslims show the rest of the world that they can be civilized, perhaps there will no longer be a need to profile them. Whenever I travel, I watch the swarthy men very carefully.
You have it wrong. "Asian" means Pakistani (or Indian) in the UK, not Arab.
I agree completely. They aren't going to manage to look all that different.
I'm sorry, but I think that if your name is Mohammed, you should expect extra scrutiny. I don't think any 6'5" blue-eyed blondes named Sven have committed any terrorist acts, lately.
And I agree that the term "Asian" is misleading. Asian, to me, refers to someone from Japan or China or Korea or thereabouts. If they mean Arab or middle Eastern, they need to say so. Don't say things that imply you're talking about folks on the other end of the continent. If I were Japanese, I'd be insulted.
I don't think the problem was that they were asian or known muslims.
I believe, after reading the article, that the reason people were nervous around them was because they were over dressed in winter clothes in the middle of summer and were speaking an arabic sounding language and were acting strangely.
weren't we all asked to be aware of people fitting this description??
yea, this still causes a lot of confusion the world over!
The Brits have a saying the Francophiles here will enjoy: "Wogs begin at Calais"
The newspaper continues to describe these men as "Asian". Do you think, for one moment, that if these men were not Muslim the paper could resist trumpeting that fact far and wide?
Frankly, if anyone is to blame for the attitude of the passengers, it is the Muslim terrorists themselves and the majority of Muslims in Britain who seem to have no problem with Islamic terrorism.
It is not irrational to be suspicious of Muslim appearing men who are acting in a suspicious manner. People have nothing to apologize for, here.
At least it's an improvement over when the British used the "N" word to describe other ethnic.
Also remember, they think we are the ones who have an accent.
I think we need to eaxmine the "root cause" of why people think Muslims might be terrorists.
And north of the Thames :)
Nobody wants to read the story after the next hijacking or bombing about how people thought those swarthy guys were acting a little squirrely, but did nothing about it for fear of giving offense.
This is the World we live in. It is not of our making. If the Muslims have a problem with it, they should talk to their local Imam, who has been broadcasting pro-terrorist clap-trap every day for years.
Maybe the muzzies ought to be asking "Why do they hate us?"
The real point of profiling is to make life for Muslims so uncomfortable that they finally get off their @$$es and do something about it, but it also has the benefit of raising the difficulty level for terrorists. Yeah maybe they have some white-convert assets, but not a whole lot of them, and it renders 99% of their people useless for the task.
I agree, enough of the BS...these bastards want to kill ME.
It wouldn't bother me one bit if we refused to let them (Muslims) onto any airplane anywhere ever again.
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