Travelling, something basically everyone’s done at one point in their lives. Whether it is for business reasons; religious reasons or just to visit family. Now imagine a whole plane being evacuated just because of a remark made by you regarding where you’re sitting and how safe it is. This was the case of nine Muslim passengers 8 of which were born in the America on a US flight on New Year’s Day in 2009. Two girls who sat near the family over heard them discussing where exactly would be the best place to sit, also one of the Muslim men said 'Wow, the jets are right next to my window.’ With this alone 104 passengers were evacuated off the plane with the pilots consent, in order to maintain security.
Personally I truly believe the reason behind all of this had little to do with the remark made by the man and a lot to do with his faith being Islam. It’s nothing new to hear about passengers being scared of being on a plane with a group of Muslims after the incident of 9/11. However did it ever cross the girls minds that maybe the man was just fascinated by the jets being right outside his window… come on you’re on a plane it’s not every day you see these things up close and personal. Also just because the family was discussing where would be the most convenient place to sit shouldn’t have set off alarming signals to the other passengers. On a plane everyone wants to find their own comfort, when I’ve been on a plane I always complained about my seating arrangement... it’s only natural.
Therefore I find it wrong that these people were basically targeted with stereotypes just because of a little remark. Since 9/11 I find that the people of Islam have been observed during travel a lot more than any other religion, no one should feel targeted while travelling just because of their faith, that’s just wrong and adds on to the already made steryotypes.
I can completely agree with this. I have travelled a lot during these past 6 years, and every time we left, we always left from a Canadian Airport, except the last time, when we left from an American Airport. When we used to leave from Toronto, we would go through the gate and nothing would happen, but when I left from Detroit, they had a special area for Arabs, and they patted us down to make sure were not carrying anything dangerous. I believe this is really offenssive and they should just get over with it. Not all arabs are like that.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny I read this blog, because just recently I was watching the news and they were discussing how airports are trying to advance the technology that is currently used to make sure they stop as much incidents as they can. But the downfall of all this is that they waste a whole lot of money on this. I mean it is obviouse that their are more things they could invest the money on. I don't mean to say public safety is not mendatory, but to atleast invest money on some more important things in this world. Overall very good blog thought!
ReplyDeleteWow Batoul that's the first time I've ever heard of a special section for arabs to be patted down. All I can say is if I were there and was told to go to that section I would've definitely had a lot to say to them. It's sad to see that people have a fear of being on a plane with a group of Arabs just like everyone else this race also has places to be.
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