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    schuretteRachel Vorona Cote
    4/18/16 12:10am

    Just wow. It makes no sense on any conceivable level. Surely people are aware that Arabic is just a language spoken by millions of people - and surely once they didn't find anything suspicious on this man or his luggage they should have just upgraded him to business with a profound apology?! But FBI?!?! No opportunity for rebooking?? How is the legal let alone good business practice?? Or are they just trying to attract a racist customer base? Mental.

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      jinnischurette
      4/18/16 12:16am

      490 million, according to Wikipedia.

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      AliasHschurette
      4/18/16 12:24am

      And the scary trigger word was ‘Shahid’ - a word that until now I only knew as the name of my colleague.

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    The Noble RenardRachel Vorona Cote
    4/18/16 12:04am

    Gawker reported on this story already, but this wasn’t even the only incident that came out this weekend!

    Yesterday it was a Muslim woman who had the audacity to ask if she could switch seats with someone. On that alone, she was kicked off the flight.

    Southwest’s record here is awful. A quick Google search brings up a half dozen other similar situations.

    It’s very clear that Southwest, like the region it’s named after, is fucking intolerant.

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      many bells down wears many stupid hatsThe Noble Renard
      4/18/16 12:31am

      Even better - the other passenger was willing to switch, and does not appear to have been asked to leave the flight.

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      Rooo sez BISH PLZmany bells down wears many stupid hats
      4/18/16 12:35am

      Then I’m going to lay bets that the other passenger was white.

      Because if the other passenger was of color, s/he might well have been pulled off the flight too.

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    TotoroRecallRachel Vorona Cote
    4/18/16 12:05am

    So question - who actually chooses to fly Southwest these days? Besides finding a good Wanna Get Away deal, their flights aren't that much cheaper than everyone else, I HATE the boarding system (I feel it takes longer because everyone is milling around, avoiding middle seats, doing weird baggage storage things), and the seats are super uncomfortable. I know this airline was the indie darling years ago, but every flight I've had on it SUCKED.

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      PuddingandthemissusTotoroRecall
      4/18/16 12:09am

      I actually just flew it again after swearing it off for many years and was surprised by how nice it was for the price. This behavior is bullshit and has me rethinking future flights. Back to Frontier..,

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      LawyerhereTotoroRecall
      4/18/16 12:22am

      Their rewards system is tops though - my wife flys free if she travels with me and I always fly free from points

      Doesn’t excuse how ridiculous this incident sounds. Imagine being in a non-English speaking country on a flight and telling your friend on the phone that your trip was “the bomb.” If you were pulled off the flight and humiliated you would feel outrage. What happened here doesn't seem much different.

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    Bingo BronsonRachel Vorona Cote
    4/18/16 12:12am

    Something quite similar occurred last week with my daughter’s classmates. About a dozen children at her school got to go on a 5 day trip to New York after winning a math quiz. Among those dozen were two lovely and brilliant twins who just so happened to be Muslim. As the flight was about to take off, they were whispering to each other excitedly in Hindi and an old white man reports them and they get subjected to this same degrading treatment. They were in tears by the end - the boy especially, who was crying and at the same time looked embarrassed for showing his emotions. They were asked to take the next flight and one of the other parents coming along even suggested we leave them! Their parents were called, and even the principal of the school. I felt so bad for them, but I was helpless. The looks of suspicion they got, the whispering...it’s just...*sigh*

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      Mary-GraceBingo Bronson
      4/18/16 12:32am

      That breaks my heart:(:( How old are they?

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      CuteFluffyKittiesBingo Bronson
      4/18/16 1:40am

      People are idiots. I wish everyone were required to take cultural literacy classes.

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    chritter is a nocturnal feminist mancatfishRachel Vorona Cote
    4/18/16 12:24am

    “We wouldn’t remove passengers from flights without a collaborative decision rooted in established procedures...We regret any less than positive experience onboard our aircraft. Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.”

    This is the sound of a slightly panicky legal department.

    Better make sure that word percolates down to the people who are actually staffing your flights, Southwest lawyers, or you’re going to be in for a world of hurt.

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      Rooo sez BISH PLZchritter is a nocturnal feminist mancatfish
      4/18/16 12:38am

      The Iraqi gentleman they tossed sounds like just that, a gentleman.

      I hope he has a relative with US citizenship or other standing to sue who’s as mean as a snake and willing to look for grounds.

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      chritter is a nocturnal feminist mancatfishRooo sez BISH PLZ
      4/18/16 12:45am

      One can only hope. I’m not a lawyer and don’t know the intricacies of standing, but this certainly seems like a pattern of behavior by flight crews that doesn’t exactly align with their stated “no discrimination” policy.

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    PrincessCharlotte'sNannyRachel Vorona Cote
    4/18/16 12:09am

    can you please clarify- he was removed for his “complicated and political” conversation with the airline employee, right? granted, that conversation took place BECAUSE he was speaking arabic (and looked the part). but I have read in several other sources that it was his (understandable) anger that directly lead to his removal. not because he was speaking arabic. is that accurate?

    also it’s a little misleading to say it was JUST the arabic. sure, the arabic was the main part. but if someone really thought they heard “martyr”, then it was the fact that they thought they heard a threat, not just the language that was used. had he said it in english (“martyr” that is, which to be clear, he didn’t actually say), he would have still been treated the same. so the message is IT WAS ISLAMAPHOBIA B, not ISLAMAPHOBIA A

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      TheVageniusPrincessCharlotte'sNanny
      4/18/16 1:06am

      I agree that his anger (if that is true) would have gotten him kicked off. You do not pop attitude with the flight crew.

      But, the woman didn't speak the language or she would have understood the entire conversation and thus not reported him. She is probably an asshole, and a racist.

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      CuteFluffyKittiesPrincessCharlotte'sNanny
      4/18/16 1:38am

      No, wrong. If you don’t speak Arabic which I’m sure this person didn’t, don’t go accusing them of saying something in their language that you don’t understand.

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    V.Rachel Vorona Cote
    4/18/16 4:09am
    GIF

    I can’t even. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

    Every day that goes past, stories like this make it look like Americans are regressing backwards. Honestly, the minority of crazies in America are totally dragging the rest of the ‘normal’ population down in global estimation. Just when I think ‘give them the benefit of the doubt, the minority don’t represent the whole population’, Trump wins another poll, another person of colour is shot/beaten/discriminated against, another Muslim is falsely accused of terrorism for dressing/speaking/praying according to their traditions and customs, a gay/lesbian/transgender person experiences marginalisation or discrimination, women are prevented from accessing birth control or planned parenthood services by foaming-at-the-mouth extremists, Ex-service personnel are treated like shit, etc. This is how America comes across to people in other countries.

    I’m certain I will end up flamed for this post, because people are incapable of acknowledging that others whose views are different to their own have a legitimate right to their own opinion, and that that opinion is not necessarily wrong, just because it differs from their own...

    I know what we see represents a tiny fraction of reality, but is that the image America really wants to portray to the rest of the world? A nation of racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic bigots? Because it sure as hell seems like it...

    Obviously there is a bigger picture, and blah blah, but based on the stories that make global news, America seems like a terrifying place to be a Woman/Person of colour/Homosexual/Transgender/Any-religion-that-isn’t-Fundamentalist-Christian/Athiest. Of course I wouldn’t want to be any of those things in Saudi Arabia, either (Substitute ‘Christian’ for ‘Muslim’), or basically anywhere in Africa or the Middle East... But still... Come on, America, get your shit together!

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      SarsAttacksV.
      4/18/16 7:09am

      Don’t disagree, but the reason these things are objectionable is not because they’re Sullying our Good Name.

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      MarillenbaumV.
      4/18/16 8:11am

      Nah, I’m with you. There’s a fuckton of shameful bigotry that was probably always there, but is much more visible, and it’s so disheartening.

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    nonstandard deviationRachel Vorona Cote
    4/18/16 3:05am

    There are 3.3 million Muslims in the United States. That’s one in every hundred people in America who has to worry that just speaking a language they grew up with will disrupt their life at any moment. That’s a lot of people who are being denied the pursuit of happiness.

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      jinninonstandard deviation
      4/18/16 3:14am

      This is very true, and an excellent point, though I will hasten to add that while most Arabs are, indeed, Muslims — most Muslims are not Arabs. Something few people here know. The largest Muslim country in terms of population, for example, is Indonesia.

      There are many Muslims who pray in Arabic, yet do not speak it in daily discourse. In fact, the majority.

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      nonstandard deviationjinni
      4/18/16 1:58pm

      For sure! Sorry that I oversimplified. Though I bet non-Arabic Muslims, or non-Muslim Arabic speakers for that matter, also face the same absurd reactions. There’s another story in the comments about a Hindi speaker.

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    OvdanyakadRachel Vorona Cote
    4/17/16 11:57pm

    You don’t condone or tolerate it but you sure can fucking execute. Good work Southwest.

    Also indescribable shame is not just a “less than positive experience”, but what? Oh it happened off the aircraft so who gives a shit amirite?

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      OregonLadRachel Vorona Cote
      4/18/16 1:40am

      Today at work, one of my colleagues was on the phone to his wife.

      I asked him what language he was speaking. He said Farsi, which probably means he’s from Iran (though I didn’t bring that up).

      I mentioned the Iraqi refugee incident & said that airline was wrong. And that my philosophy was live & let live. And to let people be...

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        adultosaur married anna on the astral planeOregonLad
        4/18/16 10:18am

        good job?

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        OregonLadadultosaur married anna on the astral plane
        4/18/16 6:58pm

        Moral: not everyone is intolerant...

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