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British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed. The extraordinary scenes happened after some of the 150 passengers on Malaga-Manchester flight overheard two men of Asian appearance apparently talking Arabic [source].
Shocking! No wonder Bin Laden finds it easier to recruit more people in to his terror organization. The real intentions of the terrorists is not to kill people or make a political statement or anything more sinister; it is simply “creating terror” i.e. creating an atmosphere of terror in which you would act irrationally and refuse to live the life you would otherwise do without batting an eyelid.
In this case, I am not sure why the airlines caved and asked the poor men to disembark. They should have simply asked the complaining passengers to take another flight if they suspected them to be terrorists.
I remember boarding a flight to Chicago, accompanied by a passenger who had a kitten in an animal cage in the cabin. The poor animal was justifiably scared and restricted in the small cage. The kitten squealed and meowed while waiting to board the flight and throughout the flight. Before boarding, when some passengers complained to the stewardess, she told them that passengers with pets have as much right to travel as we do and if anyone was significantly disturbed then they would accomodate them on a later flight. The complaining passengers piped down soon after.
But I guess in this “day of terror”, dark-skinned men speaking in strange tongues have lesser rights than a frightened kitten.
by Patrix | on Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 11:16 am | 
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August 20th, 2006 at 1:46 pm reply
Somehow I am not surprised by this. After 9/11, there were several cases of Indian/Middle Eastern/Sikh people off-loaded from flights due to complaint by passengers.
August 20th, 2006 at 4:34 pm reply
I wonder when all this is going to move to USA/Canada and become common place in North America. I cannot believe the brits can be as barbaric as this. This incident just re-affirms my fear and annoyance at transiting via LHR. I guess I’ll just stick to France or Switzerland (or Frankfurt) if I’m transiting via Europe in future. Jeez!
August 20th, 2006 at 7:02 pm reply
I bet the real terrorists are pissing in their pants with laughter.
August 21st, 2006 at 7:50 am reply
how ridiculous…………and shows how narrowminded and uneducated those people who complain really are…………
August 21st, 2006 at 11:08 am reply
The conversation between Rajaji and E.V.K.Periyar comes to mind. the latter is an atheist and the former a sanskrit schol of eminence.
Periyar: There is no god. Religion perpetrates casteism. Abolish it.
Rajaji: Ahy do you condemn all of religion. There is some good and some bad in it. Take the good and leave out the bad.
periyar: If u mix poison with sugar and ask people to eat just the sugar parts of it, how can they do it?
I hate periyar. I usually never quote him. But this post seemed to provide the right context.
August 21st, 2006 at 5:06 pm reply
Bongo, I guess all that blatant discrimination was excused under the pretext of ‘national security’. Reminds us of the Japanese interrment during WWII
Ravi, we had a bad experience while transiting through Paris last December so good luck to you.
Vi, the terrorists are smiling smugly at their ‘mission accomplished’.
M, true.
Hawkeye, Any form of organized religion is bound to infuse mob mentality in its followers. Fear mongering is a far effective tool than it is given credit for.