Earlier this year, Saudi Arabian Airlines announced that they would not fly anyone with an Israeli passport on any of their flights. In addition, they said that they would not allow anyone with an Israeli stamp in any other countries passport to fly in or out of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation and it is ruled under very strict Muslim laws. They are also an ally of the US so the news of this discrimination was kept somewhat low key by the Obama administration who is also an ally to the Muslim religion.
Except for some Jewish residents in New York, I don’t recall hearing very many people, especially any Muslims complain about Saudi Arabian Airlines’ discriminatory process, especially considering the fact that they do fly commercially in and out of the US and will enforce their discriminatory practices here in our country. But when the najdi are on the other foot, things are different.
Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul, Islamic imams from Tennessee have filed suit against Delta Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, claiming that they were not allowed to fly because of how they looked and who they are.
According to their lawsuit, the two men were wearing traditional Muslim clothing and were on their way to an anti-Muslim bigotry conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. They passed through the TSA security, underwent several extra security checks and pat downs and were approved for boarding. At boarding they were pulled aside and again given another security check and allowed to board.
After being seated, they were again asked to provide a photo id, which they did. Then just as the plane began to taxi away from the gate, the pilot announced that they had to return to the gate where the two imams were asked to gather their luggage and disembark. TSA agents again searched their luggage and patted down the men and cleared them to board.
At this time, the pilot refused to let the two Islamic clerics back on board the plane. A Delta supervisor was called in and he had a rather heated discussion with the pilot and then tried to smooth things over with the clerics. At this point, a higher ranking Delta supervisor was called in, but by the time he arrived, the plane had left the gate.
The plane was order back to the gate where the higher ranking supervisor had another heated discussion with the pilot. The pilot told him that he was uncomfortable with the two men being on his plane and thought that their presence would make other passengers uncomfortable. The passengers were asked and no one responded that they were uncomfortable with the two men on board, but the pilot still expressed his reservations. Finally, the flight was allowed to leave without the two imams on board.
I’m sure the pilot is going to have hell to pay for his actions, but we will have to wait and see.
I’m not one to favor discrimination, but if a Muslim run airline is allowed to practice ethnic discrimination for their flights here in the US, then hasn’t the legal precedent been set? If action is taken against the pilot of this flight, I hope they use the example of the Saudi Arabian Airlines discriminatory practices as part of their defense. Muslims many want it both ways, but hopefully they can’t have it both ways.