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Three Muslim Siblings booted off plane because text on phone was in Arabic

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E

excelsiorlef

Member
Sakina Dharas, 24, her sister Maryam, 19, and their brother Ali, 21, were on board EasyJet flight EZY3249 from London's Stansted Airport to the Italian city of Naples on August 17.

Sakina told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that as the plane was about to take off, a crew member ordered the siblings off the aircraft and escorted them down the staircase to the tarmac, where they were met by armed police and an MI5 agent who questioned them for one hour.

Earlier, two passengers - also travelling to Naples - had told authorities that the siblings had been looking at a mobile phone screen that showed either Arabic text or the words "praise be to Allah", Sakina said.

"A passenger on your flight has claimed that you three are members of ISIS," the MI5 agent said to the siblings, according to Sakina, a clinical pharmacist.

"The minute that I saw police standing there, I was extremely emotional," she said.

"We had nothing at all [on our phones]. We don't even speak Arabic, we're [of] Indian [origin]."

Sakina added that her brother had not looked at his phone during their time at Stansted.

The only Arabic in her smartphone is within an app featuring verses from the Quran, she said, which "wasn't open" throughout their time in the airport.

During their one-hour interrogation on the tarmac, Sakina said she was asked to explain - page by page - the details of various entry stamps on her passport. She also showed the MI5 agent recent WhatsApp messages. The siblings provided answers relating to their personal lives and were questioned on their home addresses, workplaces, social media history and parents' professions.

Sakina said the agent told them that he had already performed checks on the family and was simply verifying the information, before warning her that he would be "doing more research on you, and if anything comes back, I'll be here waiting on your return".

The siblings, who are from northwest London. were then allowed back on the plane, which had been delayed.

'Nervous and embarrassed'

"I was extremely nervous and embarrassed," said Sakina, who also wrote an account of the event on her Facebook page.

"I thought, shouldn't they [the agent and police officers] be coming up [on the plane] with us, to show the other passengers that we hadn't done anything wrong, to say, 'Don't worry, it was a misunderstanding?'

"Our holiday in Italy was ruined. It played on our minds the whole time."

EasyJet confirmed the incident to Al Jazeera.

"Following concerns raised by a passenger during the boarding of flight … a member of ground staff requested the assistance of the police who took the decision to talk to three passengers at the bottom of the aircraft steps, before departure," the company said.

"The safety and security of ... passengers and crew is our highest priority which means that if a security concern is raised we will always investigate it as a precautionary measure.

"We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to the passengers."

Sakina said she and her siblings were victims of "racial profiling".

"I'm still very annoyed that someone [the accusing passengers] can get away with a blatant lie," she said, adding that she would take legal action "if I knew a way to do so".


The incident comes at a time of rising Islamophobia in the UK.

Sakina said before the plane experience, she had received "the odd racist remark about my headscarf".

"With the way things are spun in the media and the climate we're in, we're growing accustomed to it, and desensitised … More education is the best way to battle ignorance," she added.

Muslims around the world are increasingly subject to discrimination as Islam is conflated with "terrorism".
Click to expand...

All you have to do is point at a Brown person amd say ISIS now....

But the airline wants to apologize for their unconvince... fuck off

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/mus...ff-plane-because-text-on-phone-was-in-arabic/
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
So many people just desperately want Muslim people in camps and out of the way, don't they? Doesn't matter if you're actually a threat. At this point being Muslim + brown is inherently a threat in many eyes.

texhnolyze said:
Terrorists have won. People are already living in fear.
Click to expand...

And people fall for it hard. It's crazy.
 
O

orochi91

Member
"We don't even speak Arabic, we're [of] Indian [origin]."
Click to expand...
Racists and bigots don't really care about such nuance, because to them simply looking foreign is reason enough to profile someone.

For example, this is why Sikhs get shot up in the US, due to the turban/Muslim stereotypes :/
 
A

AMUSIX

Member
What complete bullshit.

The only TINY bit of recompense is that the bigot who lied had to sit on the tarmac for an hour. At least the plane was held...usually that's not the case.
 
D

dareacher

Banned
orochi91 said:
Racists and bigots don't really care about such nuance, because to them simply looking foreign is reason enough to profile someone.

For example, this is why Sikhs get shot up in the US, due to the turban/Muslim stereotypes :/
Click to expand...

i think its a little short sighted to call them racists or bigots....some uneducated people get fed a bunch of crap from the media and get scared. Sadly this is a big piece of the problem IMO. Fear can do a whole lot to a human....even more so to a not so smart human .
 
R

RBH

Member
It makes me sad how these types of stories are happening on the regular nowadays. Something's gotta be done to put an end to this shit so that dumbass whistleblowers don't have so much authority in these kind of situations without any repercussions.
 
T

Tinfoilhatsron

Banned
Title should be Three Indian Siblings booted off plane for looking 'Muslim'-y.
Quick edit: Fucking held for an hour, lol. Fuck these racists.
 
D

Dubbedinenglish

Banned
They had to get back on the same plane that was delayed? I honestly couldn't do it. Knowing one of those ignorant fucks sitting around you made the situation where you are completely embarrassed would make my blood boil. Then the cop didn't even want to go back into the plane to clear things up after publicly taking them off. Insane.
 
S

sfedai0

Banned
Completely reprehensible. Kinda glad the plane had to wait for them. Although, it is kinda weird that she has an app featuring verses from the Quran, seeing as she doesnt speal arabic and is Indian descent.
 
E

excelsiorlef

Member
Ric Flair said:
It's easy to point a finger but fear is fear. If i were on a plane and someone wearing a turban sat next to me with a text in another language on their phone, I'd be at least a little bit worried. I'd be worried because of the near daily news I've heard/read of suicide bombings or terrorist attacks committed largely by Muslim persons on civilian populations. It's hard to remain civil and of good virtue when the perpetrators keep ending up to be the same identification of people.
Click to expand...

I hear ya. I've been scared of my own reflection since McVeigh and the Oklahoma bombings.
 
E

excelsiorlef

Member
sfedai0 said:
Completely reprehensible. Kinda glad the plane had to wait for them. Although, it is kinda weird that she has an app featuring verses from the Quran, seeing as she doesnt speal arabic and is Indian descent.
Click to expand...

Why even go there?

App could have had original text and translation but yes let's examine her app choices... sooo weird
 
H

hydrophilic attack

Member
Fuck racial profiling

Also, making a group of people feel alienated in society may actually cause radicilization. So aside from being inhumane, this is counterproductive
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
Ric Flair said:
It's easy to point a finger but fear is fear. If i were on a plane and someone wearing a turban sat next to me with a text in another language on their phone, I'd be at least a little bit worried. I'd be worried because of the near daily news I've heard/read of suicide bombings or terrorist attacks committed largely by Muslim persons on civilian populations. It's hard to remain civil and of good virtue when the perpetrators keep ending up to be the same identification of people.
Click to expand...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-alnatour/muslims-are-not-terrorist_b_8718000.html
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-a...ks-extreme-christians-and-far-right-white-men
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/02/12/...ger-threat-america-isis-jihadists-422743.html
 
L

LyleLanley

Banned
RBH said:
It makes me sad how these types of stories are happening on the regular nowadays. Something's gotta be done to put an end to this shit so that dumbass whistleblowers don't have so much authority in these kind of situations without any repercussions.
Click to expand...

If a passenger says they think another passenger is a member of ISIS, even though that sounds ridiculous, what else can a flight attendant really do but tell authorities and delay the flight?
 
R

Ric Flair

Banned
excelsiorlef said:
I hear ya. I've been scared of my own reflection since McVeigh and the Oklahoma bombings.
Click to expand...
It's easy to cast shame when you aren't there. Planes have been a popular target of terrorist attacks. In that scenario, all I'm saying is it becomes much easier to give in to racial profiling. Not out of hatred for your fellow man or distrust of a certain color of skin, but out of fear and a desire for self preservation. It's absolutely a case of racial profiling, but it isn't unfathomable to me for scared people to jump to such conclusions. It's human nature
 
E

excelsiorlef

Member
Ric Flair said:
It's easy to cast shame when you aren't there. Planes have been a popular target of terrorist attacks. In that scenario, all I'm saying is it becomes much easier to give in to racial profiling. Not out of hatred for your fellow man or distrust of a certain color of skin, but out of fear and a desire for self preservation. It's absolutely a case of racial profiling, but it isn't unfathomable to me for scared people to jump to such conclusions. It's human nature
Click to expand...

I'm not going to pat you on the head and tell you it's ok to fear brown people bro.
 
N

Nokterian

Member
texhnolyze said:
Terrorists have won. People are already living in fear.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what is happening everywhere even in the netherlands people are living in fear and the government is abusing it to say everything 'terrorist' it is pathetic and sad how people can live like that.

Yes a terrorist attack is terrible and it happend many times now but letting fear consume you like it has been said they will win and we will lose.

I will not let fear control my life i rather enjoy life as i see fit.
 
W

watershed

Banned
Ric Flair said:
It's easy to point a finger but fear is fear. If i were on a plane and someone wearing a turban sat next to me with a text in another language on their phone, I'd be at least a little bit worried. I'd be worried because of the near daily news I've heard/read of suicide bombings or terrorist attacks committed largely by Muslim persons on civilian populations. It's hard to remain civil and of good virtue when the perpetrators keep ending up to be the same identification of people.
Click to expand...

Spoken like someone who has no muslim friends. Do you have any friends who speak a language other than English? Does it unnerve you to hear them speak in that language to each other?
 
D

Donos

Member
Ric Flair said:
It's easy to point a finger but fear is fear. If i were on a plane and someone wearing a turban sat next to me with a text in another language on their phone, I'd be at least a little bit worried. I'd be worried because of the near daily news I've heard/read of suicide bombings or terrorist attacks committed largely by Muslim persons on civilian populations. It's hard to remain civil and of good virtue when the perpetrators keep ending up to be the same identification of people.
Click to expand...

really? worried because of that? The real suicide fanatics don't want to look "suspicious"...
 
T

Tinfoilhatsron

Banned
excelsiorlef said:
The siblings are muslim though they're just not Arabic muslims
Click to expand...
Gotcha. I see that she was reading the Quran. My eyes just glazed over that somehow. Still, pretty fucking racist of them to fucking detain them for reading a holy book. Wouldn't have been done to Christians. Unless is was brown Christians...
 
N

Nephtis

Member
At least they made the plane stay in place while they were questioned.

I sure hope all those racist fucks enjoyed delaying the flight for everyone.
 
O

orochi91

Member
sfedai0 said:
Completely reprehensible. Kinda glad the plane had to wait for them. Although, it is kinda weird that she has an app featuring verses from the Quran, seeing as she doesnt speal arabic and is Indian descent.
Click to expand...
Many Muslims will have a good handle on how to recite/read the Arabic script in the Quran, regardless of their ethnicity.

Understanding the actual texts is another thing entirely, hence the need for translations and interpretations via scholars and imams.

For example, I can read the Quran, but without a translated version next to me, I'd be mostly lost as to what I'm reading.
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
Norml said:
I think a plane full of lives is worth making sure all is safe.
Click to expand...

WTFAMIREADING.JPG
 
N

Nepenthe

Member
dareacher said:
i think its a little short sighted to call them racists or bigots....some uneducated people get fed a bunch of crap from the media and get scared. Sadly this is a big piece of the problem IMO. Fear can do a whole lot to a human....even more so to a not so smart human .
Click to expand...

If you profile a person as a member of Isil because they're brown and have a foreign language displayed on their phone, you are racist. It doesn't matter if the profiling was done out of fear and ignorance of other cultures. All that matters is the end result- that being innocent people were stereotyped and demeaned for hours on the basis of them being born to Indian parents.

Anyway, I wish the racist who reported them had to compensate them somehow, like paying for their plane tickets. Sucks that these people can ruin others' lives in total anonymity and go on being assholes.
 
R

Ric Flair

Banned
excelsiorlef said:
I'm not going to pat you on the head and tell you it's ok to fear brown people bro.
Click to expand...
Im cautious of anyone I'm not comfortable with, just like anyone else. Is being aware of my prejudices really much worse than being in denial of them? You see someone (of any race) approaching you at night in a hoodie and feel nothing whatsoever? I don't act on my prejudice, I just understand that it's there. I think we should all live freely amongst each other, I just don't think it's in our nature to do that.
 
W

watershed

Banned
Norml said:
I think a plane full of lives is worth making sure all is safe.
Click to expand...

You think this reaction was appropriate? So now Muslims on planes can't do what exactly? Have material with arabic on it? Speak any language other than English? What special rules would you recommend for Muslims on airplanes to prove they are not a threat? Maybe something crazy like go through airport security?
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
Tinfoilhatsron said:
Does the UK have a TSA? Regardless your point still stands because everyone went through tight security.
Click to expand...

I think it's just called Airport Security rather than the TSA


Norml said:
So if somone onboard says you're isis,they should ignore it?
Click to expand...

If someone onboard said you look like a serial killer, I think you'd hope they'd give you the benefit of the doubt instead of stopping everything to evaluate you just because of what some random person said.
 
M

Massive Duck. C.M.

Banned
Norml said:
So if somone onboard says you're isis,they should ignore it?
Click to expand...

If someone on your flight pointed you out as an ISIS member, for no reason other than they thought you might be based on how you look and what was on your phone, you'd go along with it in good spirits then huh
 
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