“HEY AHMAD! (Salama ‘alikum) IS THIS THE SAFEST AREA IN A PLANE? HUH, IS IT?!” Either the nine Muslims were being this outlandish, or else they weren’t. If not, the other passengers reporting them were being merely extra paranoid, and extremely nosy. Yet if it was the latter case, wouldn’t paranoid and nosy people be blowing the whistle on Muslims daily, in planes, trains, and everywhere else? Yet this sort of thing happens rarely — maybe once a year, indicating, perhaps, that the Muslims in question were, one way or another, creating undue attention for themselves? More on this story.
“9 Muslims removed from flight get AirTran apology,” by Brian Westley for the Associated Press, January 2:
WASHINGTON (AP) “” AirTran Airways is apologizing to nine Muslim passengers kicked off a New Year’s Day flight to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security.
One of the passengers says the confusion started at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., when his brother was talking about the safest place to sit on an airplane.
In a statement Friday, Orlando-based AirTran says it refunded the air fare for the nine passengers and planned to reimburse them for replacement tickets they bought on another airline…