A British Muslim airline pilot yesterday described the “humiliating” moment when he was hauled off a transatlantic flight just before take-off. Amar Ashraf, 28, who was born in Wrexham, North Wales, said he felt “demoralised and humiliated” after being told to leave the flight from Manchester to Newark by a stewardess, and then being questioned by armed police. He believes his removal was down to having a “Muslim-sounding name”.
For the case of Dr Ahmed Farooq, to which the article refers, see CBC News, 19 August 2006
Dr Farooq was thrown off a plane in Denver last week after a fellow passenger observed him engaged in the “suspicious” activity of reciting his evening prayers. Robert Spencer has little sympathy for Dr Farooq: “These are the same prayers that jihad terrorists have prayed….”
Postscript: Yusuf Smith draws our attention to the case of Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi-American blogger who suffered harassment when he tried boarding a plane from New York to California wearing a T-shirt with Arabic writing on it.