How to tell I’m not a terrorist: We Muslims clearly need to help panicking police and border officials. Would a big tattoo help? by Sarfraz Manzoor, The Guardian, Saturday 25 April 2009

“So it turns out that the 12 Muslims arrested two weeks ago – you know, the ones who, according to ­Gordon Brown, were planning a “very big terrorist plot” – were ­doing nothing of the sort. The ­arrests and subsequent release highlight how, in a time of heightened concern, anyone who is male and Muslim – and, even worse, happens to have ­Pakistani heritage – can get mistaken for a potential terrorist. It isn’t just the police who have a problem telling the difference. The trouble is that it isn’t obvious who is a benign, peace-loving Briton who happens to be Muslim, and who is a rage-filled Islamist intent on causing mayhem.

Jailed for 10 years, the Muslim pilot who paused to pray before taking emergency action in plane crash that killed 16

Daily Mail, 24th March 2009

A Muslim pilot and co-pilot who paused to pray before taking emergency measures as they ditched a passenger plane in the sea, killing 16 people, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Pilot Chafik Gharby and co-pilot Ali Kebaier were convicted of taking inadequate emergency measures by an Italian court.

The 2005 crash at sea off Sicily left survivors swimming for their lives, some clinging to a piece of the fuselage that remained floating after the ATR turbo-prop aircraft splintered upon impact.

 

There were 34 holidaymakers and five crew on board the plane when it went down.

A fuel-gauge malfunction was partly to blame, with technicians putting the wrong type of gauge on the plane before it took off.

It meant the pilot and crew believed they had more fuel than they actually did. The plane’s engines cut out simultaneously when the fuel ran out.

However prosecutors also said the pilot succumbed to panic, praying out loud instead of following emergency procedures.

They claimed he then opted to crash-land the plane instead trying to reach a nearby airport.

‘This was an unprecedented sentence but we have always maintained that it was an unprecedented incident,’ observed Niky Persico, a lawyer for one of the victims.

‘Never before in the history of aviation disasters has there been such a chain of events and counter events,’ he added.

Another five employees of Tuninter, a subsidiary of Tunisair, were sentenced to between eight and nine years in jail by the court, in a verdict handed down yesterday.

Every once in a while someone working for a major corporation does something really stupid which captures national media attention. This week that company was AirTran Airways.

On New Year’s Day, Alexandria, Va. resident Atif Irfan, along with his wife, six family members and a family friend were kicked off of an AirTran flight from Washington, D.C.’s National Airport to Orlando, Fla.

Apparently during the flight’s boarding process, Irfan’s sister-in-law, Inayet Sahin, remarked casually to Irfan and his wife that in her view, the safest place on an airplane was over the wings, where the engines are.  Other passengers overheard Sahin’s comment, became alarmed and alerted the AirTran flight crew.

The federal air marshal for the flight then intervened and asked all nine passengers to leave the plane. He proceeded to question Irfan and his family in the jetway corridor connecting the plane to the terminal. Then the remaining 95 fellow passengers were ordered off the plane by the TSA, passing by the Irfan party in the jetway where they waited with the air marshal. Eventually, the FBI was called in to question Irfan, his family and their friend.

Irfan’ s brother, Kashif Irfan, told the Washington Post this afternoon that he believed that, ”they were profiled at least in part because of their appearance. He said three of the six adults in the party are of Pakistani descent, two are of Turkish descent and one is African American. He also said they have a traditionally Muslim appearance, with the men wearing beards and the women in head scarves.”

Tonight, All Things Considered host Robert Siegel spoke with Irfran. “It was pretty, you know, a benign comment,” Irfan said. “We didn’t use any of those buzzwords like bomb or anything like that. … Obviously, people that heard this gleaned something very different from it — that we were about to attack.”

He added: “People a lot of time, I think, hear what they want to hear.”

NPR also reported that according to Irfan, after the FBI had determined that the nine posed no threat, the agents asked AirTran to let Irfran, his family and their friend go on the next flight to Orlando, but AirTran refused, despite the FBI’s assurances.

Apparently the Irfan family was guilty of something AirTran Airways can’t abide: flying while Muslim.

To their everlasting credit, US Airways flew the family to Orlando later Thursday night.

This morning, the AirTran public relations team had to clean up the mess and unfortunately, in my view, both their statement this morning and apology this afternoon left a lot to be desired.

In their first statement, AirTran lashed out at the Irfan family, who was understandably humiliated by the experience. Then in their subsequent apology, the airline seemed to be more concerned with the 2 hour delay experienced by the 95 passengers who were allowed to fly on to Orlando on Thursday than they were dispelling the notion that their airline is bigoted against Muslims. 

AirTran described the whole incident as a “misunderstanding.” Please. Could you sound more like a corporate talking head?

Let me be very clear: I understand that airline security in the post 9-11 world is a serious matter. But I find it hard to believe that the Irfans would have been escorted off of the plane had the men not been wearing beards and the women headscarves. I also find it difficult to understand why AirTran refused to let the Irfans board a later flight to Orlando.

According to Mr. Ifran’s account to NPR, the FBI had cleared the party for travel and personally intervened with AirTran, but the airline refused to rebook the family. Yet according to AirTran’s first statement on the matter, their gate agents were not aware of the FBI clearance when they refused to rebook the family.

O.K., let’s say AirTran is right and they didn’t know the FBI had cleared the family to fly. Why wouldn’t they immediately ask the FBI and TSA agents to come to the ticket counter where the Irfans were assembled? If they didn’t, why didn’t they?

The TSA also issued a statement on the matter. The wording is similar to the wording of the AirTran apology and also sounds even less sincere. The TSA statement indicated that the AirTran pilot had the discretion to act on the suspicions of the other passengers. So apparently our government will allow a handful of ignorant anti-Muslim bigots to boot innocent passengers off a flight.

Oh, and by the way, the TSA doesn’t call the matter a “misunderstanding” but instead deems the event an “incident”.

And finally, the New York Times reported tonight that the Irfans have contacted  the Council on American-Islamic Relations to discuss the behavior of AirTran and government officials. According to the Times, the organization is working with the family and AirTran to resolve the matter.

“This was handled badly by AirTran — they were quite belligerent in the beginning,” the council’s Ibrahim Hooper  told the Times  in a telephone interview. “But as they saw the facts come out, they have become more conciliatory.”

One can only hope.

It seems to me that the PR team at AirTran could have put their customer service executive on a YouTube video and personally delivered an apology more heartfelt in tone. In addition, they should have explicitly denied any anti-Muslim bias and they should have contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations for assistance first. (Ideally, they would already have a relationship with the council, which is the country’s leading Muslim advocacy group.) Finally, they should have explicitly apologized for not putting the Irfans on the subsequent flight to Orlando following the FBI clearance.

After all of this, I will think twice about flying AirTran again, whose customers are guilty until proven “incident”.

Two muslims removed from plane

Nine Muslim-Americans were removed from a AirTran Airways plane Thursday evening.   The nine of them, including three children, were taken off a flight going from Washington, D.C. to Orlando because one of the group made a remark about the safety of the aircraft. 

One of the men in the group said to another about their child sitting in a seat adjacent to one of the planes engines and they began talking about the safest place to sit on an airplane.  Another passenger became suspicious after overhearing the conversation about “airplane security” and notified a flight attendant, who then notified the pilot and air marshals who were present.  The group of men, women and children were then removed.

AirTran finally responded Friday with an apology saying, "We regret that the issue escalated ot the heightened security level it did," they released in the statement.  They also refunded the family’s money and offered to fly them back to Washington for free.  But the damage was already done.  Initially the airline did not allow them back on the plane or re-book the family even after they were cleared by the FBI, who would eventually help re-scheduele a flight to Orlando with another airline.

Immediate talk of racial profiling surfaced by the group.  After they were escorted off, feelings of disrespect were felt.  One of those detained, Kashir Irfan said, "We did feel like we were being singled out, not because of what we had said or some members had said, but rather the fact that we looked a certain way and we wore certain pieces of clothing."  Of course people would see the beards and headscarves from Arab-Americans and could be lead to believe that they’re Muslims and could perhaps be involved with terrorist acts.

Not for nothin’, but you can’t help but to wonder if the airline would have done the same thing if this was a Caucasian family.  If so, then perhaps this whole ordeal may have been warranted.  Otherwise its rather inexcusable.  We’re constantly reminded, particularly in airports, "if you see any suspicious behavior" then report it.  Well anyone could have the potential for suspicious behavior, but are we to expect officials are to act the same way to everyone, or single out a specific race.  Its a post-9/11 world and even though its quite unfortunate its still expected.  But that’s not much of an excuse either as minorities are abundantly subjected to these types of racial profiling. 

Source

AFP photo

Be careful when flying while Muslim on AirTran Airways.

The Associated Press reports that “AirTran Airways apologized [today] to nine Muslims [who were] kicked off a New Year’s Day flight to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security.

“ One of the [Muslim] passengers said the confusion started at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., when he talked about the safest place to sit on an airplane.”

The AP reports that the Muslim passenger, 29-year-old lawyer Atif Irfan, “said when he boarded the flight [yesterday], he mentioned something to his wife and sister-in-law about having to sit in the back. His sister-in-law replied that she believed the back of the airplane was the safest, but Irfan believed it was better to be by the wings.

“‘She said, “Yes, I guess it makes sense not to be close to the engine in case something happens,”’ Irfan recalled [today]. ‘It was a very benign conversation.’”

“Irfan said he thought he and [his companions] were profiled because of their appearance,” the AP reports. “The men had beards and the women wore headscarves, traditional Muslim attire.”

I wasn’t there, and neither were you (probably), but it seems to me that it was indeed a case of ethnic profiling, probably by some easily spooked whities.

Were a group of Anglo-Americans talking about the safest location to sit in an airliner, probably no one would think anything of it.

Too bad that we Americans couldn’t ring in the new year by turning over a new leaf where post-9/11 hysteria is concerned.

I’ll keep on hoping for that change that we’ve been promised…

By Lolla Mohammed Nur, Engage Minnesota

There is little doubt that many Minnesotans misunderstand Islam and the Muslim community. Misconceptions of Islam, however, did not arise out of empty air; the actions of a radical few have led people to see Islam as a barbaric religion. Although the frustration of “radicals” may be understood, there certainly are more peaceful ways of expressing one’s Islamic beliefs to the non-Muslim community, namely through spreading knowledge (da’wah).

Islamic Awareness Week is an example of such peaceful expression. The week includes a range of activities, from a simulation of “flying while Muslim” to a lecture on “Science in Islam.” The 2008 event is set to take place March 31 through April 4, and is sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Muslim Student Association and Al-Madinah Cultural Center.

Evening Lectures Get ‘Back to the Basics’

The topics of this year’s Islamic Awareness Week evening lectures are based on a “back to the basics” theme. They include:

• Monday: “The concept of God in Islam,” presented by Sheikh Khalid Yasin
• Tuesday: A panel discussion of the American Muslim identity
• Wednesday: “The Prophets of Islam,” by Imam Siraj Wahaj
• Thursday: “Science in Islam,” by Prof. George Saleba
• Friday: “Women in Islam,” by Imani Jaafar-Mohammed

The lectures on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will take place in the University of Minnesota’s Willey Hall, Room 125 (map it). The lectures on Thursday and Friday will take place in the U. of M.’s Anderson Hall, Room 210 (map it). Both buildings are on the University’s West Bank campus on either side of Washington Avenue and east of 19th Street. Each lecture is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. and end at 8 p.m. The goal of each is to discuss basic Islamic principles.

“There is no need to be on the defense,” says Nadia Huq, an organizer of this year’s Awareness Week. Rather, the lectures and activities will be based on what non-Muslims need to know about what is essentially Islam.

Islamic Awareness Week: Not Just a Load of Lectures

There also are a number of creative daytime activities, all at Coffman Memorial Union (see a map) south of Washington Avenue on the U. of M.’s East Bank campus. These include:

• An airport simulation on Monday outside Coffman. This will represent what it is like for a Muslim to be searched in an airport (11 a.m.-2 p.m.).
• On Tuesday, a photography exhibit of the Muslim-American identity will be displayed in the President’s Room in Coffman (noon-2 p.m.).
• Thursday’s event—the Islamic civilization exhibit in Coffman’s Great Hall (11 a.m.- 2 p.m.)— is the most creative event so far, with a display of scientific discoveries made by Muslims, as well as a large-scale timeline of Islam-related events around the world. There will also be a section on Islamic culture and history in Africa, as well as a marbling and calligraphy workshop.
• On Friday, there are two events. “Hijabi for a Day”—where volunteers hand out free hijabs (scarves) for women to wear for the day—and a nasheed performance. Nasheed is a popular “a capella” form of religious singing. Both will take place outside Coffman from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Last year, “Hijabi for a Day” was such a success that the committee decided to host the event again this year. The difference this year is that the committee received several free hijabs from the Karmel Somali mall in Minneapolis. Another advantage this year is that Holy Land Deli will serve free food during every night’s lecture.

Reaching Out to the Public

The IAW committee has devoted its time since November to putting ideas together, talking to the general Muslim student body, contacting potential speakers, and reserving spaces for lectures. As Volunteer Coordinator and board member of Al-Madinah, I have seen that the committee has made a strong effort to reach out to the public. Furthermore, the committee has striven to make this year’s Islamic Awareness Week very creative and catchy, using a “back to the basics” theme throughout the lectures and activities.

The fliers were designed to catch the public’s attention, with their black and white pictures of curious-looking Muslims staring at the onlooker. Fliers were posted all around campus and in local stores and restaurants, but everyone – from anywhere in Minnesota – is welcome to attend. The organizers of Islamic Awareness Week feel that we, as a representative of the real Muslim community, need to reach out to the public and make as much da’wah as possible.

Organizers expect Islam Awareness Week will be a great success, and are hoping for at least 200 attendees for each lecture. Islamic Awareness Week is the most important event that the Muslim Student Association and Al-Madinah host every year because it is a source of da’wah to many non-Muslims who have come to equate Islam with terrorism and believe that all Muslims are terrorists. Da’wah can help dispel these beliefs and restore the true, peaceful, image of Islam.

So brothers and sisters, please support your Muslim community and participate in Islamic Awareness Week by attending at least one event – and bringing a friend. The entire Minnesota community is welcome. Participating in da’wah together can only bridge the gap of misunderstandings and spread knowledge of the true and beautiful entity of Islam.

Lolla Mohammed Nur is a freshman and an international student from Saudi Arabia. She is currently a biology major at the University of Minnesota but is exploring her newfound interest in poetry and cultural diversity.