it's a go!
 

- MEDIA ADVISORY -
CAIR: San Diego Muslim Removed from Southwest Airlines Flight

(SAN DIEGO, CA, 3/15/11) –- On Wednesday, March 16, the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-San Diego) will hold a news conference with a Muslim passenger removed without explanation from a Southwest Airlines flight on Sunday.

At the news conference, CAIR-San Diego will call for an investigation of the incident and an apology to the Muslim traveler.

WHAT: CAIR-San Diego News Conference with Muslim Removed from Southwest Flight
WHEN: Wednesday, March 16, 11 a.m. (Pacific)
WHERE: Curbside on east end of Terminal 1 (by running man statue), San Diego International Airport, 325 North Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92101. [NOTE: Media vans are permitted to park curbside by the Running Man statue. As a reminder, media are not allowed to leave their vehicles unattended at any time.]
CONTACT: CAIR San Diego Public Relations Director Edgar Hopida, 619-913-0719 or 858-278-4547, E-Mail: [email protected]

The Muslim graduate student was reportedly removed from the flight from San Diego to San, Jose, Calif., because a member of the crew said the woman, who wears an Islamic head scarf, was "suspicious." No explanation for the removal was given except for a reference to a flight attendant claiming she overheard the phrase "it's a go" in the passenger's cell phone conversation while waiting to take off. (The Muslim passenger reports that what she really said was, "I've got to go.") The woman believes she was viewed as suspicious because of her perceived religion and ethnicity.

"We believe the main factors that led to this traveler being humiliated in front of other passengers were her religious attire and her South Asian heritage," said CAIR San Diego Public Relations Director Edgar Hopida.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

- END -

See something, say something, do something.
How quickly crap like this goes terrible wrong.

If anyone is in favor of this ridiculously thought out program
probably bought into the government's homemade fallout
shelter.

And in both the above statements, why don't folks just man-up and say it's because the f/a (in this case vs other instances when it was a pax) thinks all Muslims and/or all folks who are Muslim in appearance are terrorists. If people started saying it like it is, calling out the nimrod who caused the ruckus and slapped said nimrod (and in this case, said nimrod's employer) with a lawsuit before the ink was dry in the article about the removal of the pax from the plane saying the person's civil rights were violated, maybe folks would stop being so gdmf paranoid. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

This was our sister, daughter and mother.
 

What's next, internment camps? I guess we won't need this poem any more:

Sure we do-just as long as you're not a foreigner, right? :rolleyes:

Thing is, the majority of the mainstream American population also thinks the same way (that appearance is equivalent to terrorism). The nimrod, as you say, will get a great deal of support from the less enlightened segment of the population (the majority, unfortunately). I do hope the young lady takes this to court and I do hope SW pays through the nose. I also hope that the identity of the nimrod in question is somehow made public. Shouldn't be too difficult to find. P M

Maybe this was her ...
 

Based on what I see, I'll say this is an unfortunate, not wholly unforeseen consequence of the combination of confirmation bias with the immutable law of unintended consequence.

:td:

And if a white passenger had said the same phrase, would we be in the same situation? :rolleyes:


:td: to the FA

Why is this reporting something that will happen tomorrow, Wednesday, March 16th? :confused:

This is truly disgusting. I'm ashamed that Americans now act like this.

It's a press release for a news conference that is scheduled for tomorrow.

What does Air Namibia have to do with this?

Obviously, this was all her fault. She should've asked permission from everyone sitting around here before using her telephone, so that they wouldn't have any reason to suspect that she was doing anything unusual.

[/sarcasm]

Thank you! That's what I get for skimming once again.

:confused:

I imagine SW is the IATA code for Air Namibia. I abbreviated Southwest Airlines to SW in the original post instead of using the IATA code WN, so Tanic decided to make a funny :)

When paranoid ignoramuses get their way, incidents as noted in the OP end up happening.

"Just say no to paranoid ignoramuses."

I'm sorry that I don't see the pictures and can you please do correctly right website.

Yes, always big problems with muslins for most the times and she isn't allowed on the flight. What is reason why she was complaints against WN. She didn't have any suspicious behaviors and she was unable to get on the flight. She will have to take on trains from SAN-SJC. She have absolutely no reason why she got removed off the plane.

So all it takes for the good citizenry of the land of the free and brave (fast turning into the land of the fearful and paranoid) to start quaking in their boots is to have someone with darker skin, and wearing a scarf, to say the phrase "it's a go".

Sheesh.

Here's hoping Southwest is made to pay through the nose; and more.

This, and the incident a couple of days ago with the Jewish prayer.... Anything different seems to set off alarm bells :( It's not like the terrorists try to blend in or anything :rolleyes:

Incidents like this are something that Kate Hanni over at FlyersRights.org should be talking about. @:-)

She won't cover this, at least not honestly. Her views on security are at best borderline racist. She wants Muslims and other brown skinned people to receive additional scrutiny by the TSA. Unless she clarifies her position on this, I consider her to be an enemy of freedom - my freedom and that of my children.

+1.

She is not our ally on this or any number of other issues near/dear to TSSers.

Folks, a friendly warning to keep this thread strictly on the travel safety/security aspects of the story.

If it drifts into a discussion on politics or religion we're going to shift it to OMNI/PR.

Thanks for your cooperation.

______________________

Cholula
TS/S Co-Moderator

Between this incident on SWA and the three Orthodox Jews on ASA treated as security threats for putting on tefillin, the Muslim and the Jewish communities should make common cause against air travel paranoia.

It gets ironic when the Muslims and Jews have a joint interest that outweighs the generally perceived hostility between the two faiths.

(I use "generally perceived" to emphasize that Islam and Judaism are not automatically antagonistic to each other.)

The first thing any well brought up child learns is "See something? -> Keep your lips zipped!"

By the age of six everybody know that Grannie Daffie is wearing her foundation garment over her blouse, Paster Snortsabit has had a nip of gin, Ms Mutton should stop dressing as lamb and Uncle Chester's jokes are unrepeatable, but yapping about these matters is counter-productive.

Everything that is seen does not need to be heard.

Paranoid ignoramuses on planes and at airports might even have something to learn from the proverbial Asian-origin story of the wise monkeys who "saw no evil, heard no evil, said no evil" and, according to some, "did no evil".

The paranoid ignoramuses also have a lesson to learn from Hamlet:

"for there is nothing
either good or bad,
but thinking makes it so:
to me it is a prison."

Their xenophobia imprisons one and all, whether the paranoid ignoramuses or others recognize it or not.

Update
 

So WN issues a faux apology and throws a few bucks worth of travel vouchers at the customer. Hopefully the student in question decides to do the right thing and sue WN, force the FA and captain of the ship to be publicly named and obtain an extremely large settlement.

More here

:rolleyes:

My main problem with these removals from flights, going all the way back to the first day flights were restarted after 9/11, and the first half-dozen or so people were removed from planes, is mainly that any member of the crew or public can just declare that they are "uncomfortable" with you on the flight and you are gone - no civilized debate, no way to prove that they have no reason to feel uncomfortable -nothing! Sayonara, scary brown person.

My second problem is with the general public, who overwhelmingly either take the position that the people removed are a threat on airplanes and applaud any removal of said people, or at the consider the removal of a few people here and there an indication that real, effective security is in place.

My third problem is the stigma that the person removed from a flight has to bear when everyone around them knows what happened.

I really do wish that the captain of the ship from where a passenger is removed for reasons of race or religion be legally liable for their actions.

Is the captain a FFDO? Then it becomes a federal crime, to wit 18 USC 242.

Interview this morning on local TV, lady (victim) was seated on next flight and was given a voucher for a future flight.

Seems very inadequate to me. Think I would have consulted an attorney before accepting any compensation.

The only way to stop things like this is to force airlines to operate in an unbiased manner and I don't think a voucher will be create enough pain for the airline to reconsider its actions.

Just another punishment for the non-crime of FWV (flying while veiled).

She's suing Southwest.

http://www.boston.com/business/artic...us_plane_sues/

Good for her!! I hope she collects a large award.

On the one hand, I believe the lawsuit has merit and the actions of the crew were based on her appearance. On the other hand, it does seem like Southwest handled it "in good faith" when it happened by giving her an apology and a voucher.

I think what really has to happen is to have the pilot and the crew held accountable. The initial concern that caused her removal seems meritless enough; once she was cleared to fly, the crew's alleged refusal to allow her to reboard seems very hard to justify.

If Southwest is just going to write a big check, this suit will acomplish nothing. This has to be a teaching moment for airline crews so this type of thing isn't constantly repeated.

Agreed! ^

No problem -- One person's injustice is another person's inconvenience. It's all a matter of interpretation....

I am always amazed at the audacity of companies (not just airlines) who commit an atrocity or other injustice on a customer and then placate them with some sort of merchandise voucher. They must actually believe that the individual will actually continue to but their product or service! Or, they might believe that there is very little financial risk to giving her a voucher because of the low probability of it being used.

The only way to even begin to make amends to the woman is for WN to terminate the FA and to make sure she never agains darkens the door of any commercial aircraft as an employee.

And, here's another: An African-American middle-aged man who was reading an illustrated book on aviation, removed from the flight after a FA on this United flight saw the book. Oh my gosh, security issues!

Uh, well, if any U S airline is operating 1946 Polish aircraft, or 1921 Italian aircraft. :rolleyes: (Thanks to The Economist for the tip - blog description by "perpetrator" reading vintage aviation books.

Policeman: "Sir, were you looking at a book of airplanes?"

Me: "Yes sir I was. I am a musician for money, but for fun I study old aircraft and build models of them, and the book I was reading was of Polish Aircraft from 1946." The flight was diverted from the runway back to the gate, where LEO and TSA met the flight...

"Policeman: "Would you please go get that book so that i can see it?"

I go back onto the plane - all eyes are on me like I was a common criminal. Total humiliation part 2.

After a couple of minutes he says, "Why, this is all Snoopy Red Baron stuff..."

Me: "Yes sir, actually the triplane you see is Italian, from 1921 a little after World War 1..."

Oh, brother, now I have to worry about taking my aviation mags and books with me?

Policeman: "No problem here then, you can go on back on to the plane, sorry to inconvenience you...and have a nice flight".

.