Four Delta Air Lines passengers were removed from a flight in Minneapolis on January 8 because a flight attendant determined it was suspicious that they were Palestinian Americans. They were taken off of the plane on arrival and questioned for an hour before being released. Two of the passengers missed their connecting flights. Apparently they were guilty of “speaking in Arabic and English and wearing Palestine necklaces.”
The airport though insists that, technically, they “were not detained and could have left the area at any time.” Most people don’t feel that way while being questioned by law enforcement, and that technical status (if true) doesn’t justify or excuse being taken off of an aircraft and delivered to law enforcement on the basis of racial profiling.
A passenger on board, who was a member of law enforcement, triggered the incident on board.
According to the airport police report: “She said she watched them get up multiple times to go use the bathroom, and as each one came back they would whisper with their arms around each other. She said she found their behavior odd and decided to get up and get some water. While doing so, she approached them and asked if they were on a guys [sic] trip.”
The woman told police that the passengers said they were “CIA on a secret mission,” and pointed to a black bag.
“That was a lie,” Louay Adley said.
If you’re questioned about your behavior and you laugh it off, that’s suspicious I guess! According to Delta,
Delta is reaching out to our customers to understand more about what occurred. We do not condone discriminatory conduct.
According to the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office,
While on the flight, our employee reported to the flight crew what they discerned to be suspicious activity involving 4 fellow passengers who had been seated nearby. The crew subsequently alerted MSP Airport Police to meet our employee & the males once the plane landed.
All involved deplaned at the gate & met with responding law enforcement. Officers interviewed our employee & the 4 passengers associated with the alleged suspicious activity. The officers determined that no crime had been committed & that no further action was needed.
My brother and our cousins, who are Palestinian-American, were pulled off the airplane and held by airport security & police at the Minneapolis, MN (MSP) airport last night on their way home from a wedding and were not allowed to leave after questioning because a White woman… pic.twitter.com/6srbLCZ6Hm
— Mnar Adley (@MnarMuh) January 9, 2024
Update: I now have the identities of the two women who falsely made a bomb threat claim against my brother, and one of them is a cop.
The daughter, who initially made the false bomb threat, is a local police officer in the city of Blaine, MN named Hailey Larson.
The mother… pic.twitter.com/uM2pfyWEM2
— Mnar Adley (@MnarMuh) January 10, 2024
Hamas terror attacks on Israel, and even the support of some Palestinian Americans for those attacks, doesn’t justify discrimination against any Americans – Palestinians, Muslims, or anyone else. Flying While Muslim is challenging in this country. Flying while even being mistaken for Muslim is, too. In 2016 a math professor – named Guido Menzio – was removed from an American Airlines flight because the math symbols he drew were mistaken for Arabic writing. He was confused with a member of the ‘Al-Gebra movement’ and flagged for his use of weapons of math instruction.
(HT: Paul H)
America is a mean place, she and her family should probably move to Gaza or,the Weat Bank where stuff like this can’t happen.
What’s more troubling about this story, is that it was reported that the airport police pulled all Arabic speaking passengers off the plane and “interviewed” them. If that’s true, then it’s a very blatant case of racism.
I’m Syrian American and I do about 250k miles a year, mostly international. Been to 60+ countries and I can say my overall experience has been extremely positive. Although, I’m super cautious about not speaking or writing Arabic while on US flights. Abroad, almost any other place in the world, it’s totally acceptable. Definitely a sad reality especially when you see other bilingual pax using their language but that’s what we have to navigate.
Yes , suspicious . Law enforcement officer did what was right , and now they are “outing” her on social media . Delta FA also did what was right . Safety is their business .
@Gary, do you plan to whisper for the murderous State of Israel forever or is there a chance you will say something for the 21,000+ innocent Palestinians that have been murdered by your country? I mean, not for nothing, your daughter will eventually one day see how his father spoke about the genocide that took place. I’m asking because you can’t seem to resist throwing fake punches at Palestinians even when attempting to report a racially motivated incident that took place.
Common wisdom for years is “see something, say something”.
She saw something – and if it was as reported, that I too would have found it very suspicious for 4 arabic speaking men whispering with eachother on a plane, especially on a time when it’s known that arab and/or Islamist retaliation against the US is imminent. Also, saying as though most arabs and muslims in the US are de-facto Hamas supporters – an org who’s leader said of Bin Laden that he was a “martyr murdered by America” – thinking that these men might be up to no good on a plane is not far fetched.
Drama Queen
Read her entire tweet.
OMG,,they were in danger…anyone could have pulled a gun on them on the airplane.
If there was discrimination, it was with law enforcement. Or maybe the people were engaging in suspicious behavior even if they weren’t doing or planning anything wrong.
Sometimes, people themselves are their own worst enemy
Israel is not ‘Gary’s country’. And some goodly percentage of those killed in Gaza were Hamas, who apparently does not let women and children into tunnels/bomb shelters for protection.
As the head of the FBI said to the Senate in December, he sees terrorism threats significantly elevated (“blinking lights everywhere”). It’s good these passengers were reported. As mentioned above, “if you see something, say something.” Meanwhile, Palestinian supporters tried to overrun the White House yesterday.
Of the Arab-Americans with whom I’ve been friends, colleagues or acquaintances over the past 20+ years, most of them are Christian and they used to typically tend to be Republican.
The funny thing is seeing all the South and SE Asians — Muslims and otherwise — who assume that most or all male Arabic speakers in the US are Muslim even as many of them are not. Together, they tend to be the people who get lumped into the “flying while Muslim” treatment. It’s really more “flying while brown” — just ask some of the Sikh Americans who have been nailed by Islamophobia despite being of a religion very distinct from Islam.
Government employees who harass people on the basis of the government employee’s racist and other tribalistic prejudices deserve due public scrutiny. That applies to police officers too.
“ Hamas terror attacks on Israel, and even the support of some Palestinian Americans for those attacks, doesn’t justify discrimination against any Americans – Palestinians, Muslims, or anyone else.”
Yeah, actually, it does. Profiling works. Don’t be from a terrorist nation or religion if you don’t want profiling.
Did anyone ever stop to think, if these were truly terrorists and up to no good, the plane would never have arrived safely to Minneapolis. Duh! And if the cop and flight crew truly believed they were terrorists up to no good, why leave these four (terrorists up to no good in the minds of the cop and flight crew) in their seats unrestrained. If they truly believed they were terrorists, they should have restrained them in the air – you know for the good and safety of the plane. Once the plane landed safely, their supposition is proven wrong, and the “terrorists” should have been left to go their own way. This whole thing doesn’t make sense to me and smacks of racism.
As a geography professor who has visited over 20 Muslim nations I’d say the root causes here are ignorance and fear. The fact that someone on this thread confuses Jews with Israelis seems to show that. A fifth of the people in that country are not, and the rest are all over the map politically and in their private religious practices. And certainly not every American Jew is a Zionist, or in favor of what is going on now.
Anyway, the most populous Muslim country isn’t in the Middle East, it’s Indonesia. And as others have said a significant number of people around the eastern and southern Mediterranean are Christian or not even Arab (Turks, Kurds, Berbers etc.). And I’m not even getting into Muslims in the Balkans or the differences between Sunni and Shi’a or between Iranians and Arabs, which are great. (The same tremendous variations between people exist in Africa, but you hear even less about that.) So it’s easy to lump folks together on suspicion and if you don’t understand something…be afraid. Be very afraid.
Walter,
Racists think racist profiling works, and that is even as racist profiling in the US tends to only be successful in harassing innocent people and diverting resources from things that may actually sort of improve security outcomes.
Just say no to racism and racist profiling in America and the country will be safer and better for the end of that.
“He was confused with a member of the ‘Al-Gebra movement’ and flagged for his use of weapons of math instruction.”
Let’s not get high on our own supply. That never happened, it’s an old joke. Follow the threads back – it’s always been a joke.
Geez, if they really thought these guys were a terrorist threat, they should have restrained them and landed the plane immediately. To continue with suspected terrorists was irresponsible. The way they handled it was simply for show and to assuage a racist off duty cop. I mean they didn’t even restrain them after the cop “I.D’d” them. The incident is bullshit and was instigated by a racist cop, and racist crew.
If the police officer profiled the passengers according to her training, then she should be in the clear. Her department should be checked to find out if they trained to the state standards. If they did, they are also in the clear. Profiling is something that happens to every person flying, especially since 9/11. It happens when you hand your identification to TSA in the security line and when you interview for TSA check bypass clearance. It sounds like this situation was so low key that no one made a video.
When I read “G@z@“, I immediately knew that everything in her article is sided and antisemitism.
@C_M: Of course the comments about “Al-Gebra” and “weapons of math instruction” are jokes, but the incident in which an economist was suspected of being a terrorist because he was writing differential equations (and perhaps because he was dark-complected and spoke with an accent) did happen: https://wapo.st/4aTjdft. Note that the article contains a statement from an American Airlines spokesperson. If it had never happened you would expect AA to say that.
Given the situation, I think it’s reasonable for the affected folks to file a complaint or suit against these women. See something, say something – sure, you definitely should but you should check yourself first by imagining if you’d be alarmed if the folks your suspicious about also happened to be White. With these cases of people being falsely reported for suspicion of being human traffickers or terrorists, it clearly does seem racial biases, intended or not, is a factor.
Nobody did anything wrong here. When someone who is trained raises, a reasonable suspicion, it should be investigated. And remember, it’s not Presbyterians who are blowing stuff up all over the world.
GUWonder, funny who these “profilers” want to profile. I’m honestly more worried about the white guy (or is it White) from Montana buying fertilizer by the barrel convinced he’s talking to God on a walkie-talkie. Their track record in the US is pretty scary.
@C_M – it definitely happened.
@Chill Pill, yes people did something wrong. If they really believed that these were terrorists, they would have/should have restricted them to their seats with plastic cuffs, and landed the plane immediately TO CHECK THE PLANE FOR EXPLOSIVES – ASAP. The fact that they kept flying says everything. This incident started with racism.
@Chill Pill
Maybe not Presbyterians, but otherCaucasian Christians do commit political acts of violence on a regular basis. From blowing up abortion clinics to shooting up Synagogues and African American Churches.
The problem is we are supposed to look the other way when it’s a White person.
@Jake-1
Oh, in the US we are supposed to look the other way if the colour is White. Even when they are clubbing officers at the doors of the Capital.
“Free Palestine” supporters openly declare that their goal is to disrupt. And disrupt they do! The lady (“law enforcement” or not) did absolutely the right thing. There is nothing wrong with being careful, better than sorry.
@Fact Notes Okay, okay. Got you point. “Maybe not Presbyterians, but other Caucasian Christians do commit political acts of violence on a regular basis. From blowing up abortion clinics to shooting up Synagogues and African American Churches.”
All they have to do next time to be fair and avoid the profiling accusations, is to to arrest equal number of Caucasians. Not sure do they need to be Christians or this is optional? And any specific denominations? Only WASPs?
When I read some of the comments by whom I suspect are ‘white’ folks I am astonished at the success of the Israeli propaganda machine in brainwashing otherwise rational and fair (presumably) people. Or are these Zionist trolls waiting to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria?
9/11 — never forget! Or was it Israelis who did it, right?