Iraqi travelers part of 'unfortunate situation'

Iraqi travelers part of 'unfortunate situation'

www.msnbc.msn.com

flight 590 from San Diego finally made it to Chicago late yesterday, after being delayed in an incident involving passengers heard speaking Arabic.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The only reason the flight was delayed was because of a language these instructors were speaking.... This is getting kind of sad. I like how the government's got us so afraid of people from the middle east...that we call foul on someone speaking a language that sounds "terrorist".... all I can ask is "wtf?"

www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's not the government that has me scared of middle eastern people. It's all the things they've blown up, and all the people they've killed that has me scared. Yes, racial profiling sucks, but what else can you do? How much more tragic would it have been if they'd have done nothing, and these people speaking arabic blew the plane up? I'd rather be a bit late and annoyed than dead.

Originally posted by Jaruseleh
It's not the government that has me scared of middle eastern people. It's all the things they've blown up, and all the people they've killed that has me scared. Yes, racial profiling sucks, but what else can you do? How much more tragic would it have been if they'd have done nothing, and these people speaking arabic blew the plane up? I'd rather be a bit late and annoyed than dead.

I think its just as tragic to pile everyone who speaks a certain language, practices a certain religion, looks a certain way, into a group with murderer's and hate mongers.

I see your point, its just sad that these guys were just trying to get home and they were also inconvenienced by people profiling them just because of the language they speak. It would be like someone calling me a Nazi because I can speak German. It's a tad rediculous. (I know that was an extreme comparison, but its hurtful nevertheless to be called off a plane because of something like that). But I do see what you mean. Maybe I just give people the benefit of the doubt though.

Disgusting.

People can't even talk now and not be labeled a terrorist. This racial profiling is starting to remind me of Nazi Germany. Painting one group of people with the same brush and making the public hate and fear them.

Some people have simply got to open their eyes and stop being so damn ignorant of others.

Originally posted by Jaruseleh
It's not the government that has me scared of middle eastern people. It's all the things they've blown up, and all the people they've killed that has me scared. Yes, racial profiling sucks, but what else can you do? How much more tragic would it have been if they'd have done nothing, and these people speaking arabic blew the plane up? I'd rather be a bit late and annoyed than dead.

Wait so I speak Arabic, and what you said was very hypocritical. By you using
"they" I hope you do not mean everyone speaking Arabic. Should I be scared
of you because you killed more of my people then my people killed of yours?
When I said you, how do you feel about me calling you a killer, because your
soldiers killed innocent lives?
Please do not label a whole language because the actions of some.

Originally posted by Equinox99

Originally posted by Jaruseleh
It's not the government that has me scared of middle eastern people. It's all the things they've blown up, and all the people they've killed that has me scared. Yes, racial profiling sucks, but what else can you do? How much more tragic would it have been if they'd have done nothing, and these people speaking arabic blew the plane up? I'd rather be a bit late and annoyed than dead.

Wait so I speak Arabic, and what you said was very hypocritical. By you using
"they" I hope you do not mean everyone speaking Arabic. Should I be scared
of you because you killed more of my people then my people killed of yours?
When I said you, how do you feel about me calling you a killer, because your
soldiers killed innocent lives?
Please do not label a whole language because the actions of some.

When I said "They" I was referring to terrorists, not arabics in general. Frankly I have nothing against any race/religion/etc...But like I said, what are we supposed to do? Just let it go? hindsight is 20/20...turns out they were just people trying to get from point A to point B. But what if they weren't, and nothing was done?

Frankly I'm not offended if I get "Labeled" into anything. I've done nothing wrong...label me whatever you want.

reply to post by Jaruseleh


Listen I am pretty sure you were saying the people speaking Arabic, otherwise
I would have never felt compelled to defend myself.
"Yes, racial profiling sucks, but what else can you do?"
Than please explain this comment.

Other then that, I am Iraqi and USA invaded Iraq when they knew Al Qaeda was not in there. Too many Iraqi Muslims and Christians are dead now, the
country is in utter chaos, and people have no clean water to drink. That was
the result of you guys helping my country, when deep inside you know and I
know the country was perfectly fine before you guys took over.
Now I have to sit through this and listen about how people who speak Arabic
influence fear amongst your fellow Americans?

Let me tell you something, the problem is not with people speaking Arabic,
but it is with your government spreading out the next terrorist attack
propaganda. If Hillary was not parading around shouting next terror attack,
you would not have many Americans scared of every Arab you see.
I hope you understand when I tell you not every person who speaks Arabic
are terrorists.

I don't think it's necessarily the government that has people scared about people from the Middle East, but rather the role the media is playing in the whole issue. People tend to believe something strongly if they "see" it rather than "hear" it, and as the exposure rates to Middle Eastern violence expand, there are more people that will only see the negative aspects of that particular culture. What I find sad is that people are basing their own preconceived notions about a culture entirely upon what they see on TV. It's nothing more than racial profiling that has become acceptable as a means to root out these supposed terrorists. The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist act committed by a White American Male, but we rarely see people getting suspicious of that stereotype as we do with those of Middle Eastern origin.

Originally posted by Equinox99
reply to post by Jaruseleh

 

Listen I am pretty sure you were saying the people speaking Arabic, otherwise
I would have never felt compelled to defend myself.
"Yes, racial profiling sucks, but what else can you do?"
Than please explain this comment.

I just did explain it. Basically, you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't. In this instance, if you hold up the flight, you're damned if they're just average people (which obviously we now know they were). If you DON'T hold up the flight, you run the risk that they really ARE terrorists, so you're damned if you don't. It's a lose-lose situation. None of this racial profiling would be taking place if middle eastern terrorists hadn't started running around the world blowing things up. Before 9/11, I'm pretty sure the majority of our country had absolutely no problem with arabic people, but now, frankly, we're scared of them. I honestly do feel bad for the normal everyday arabic people, because they're fighting an uphill battle, but you can NOT blame our government for our country feeling this way. Blame the radical muslim terrorists, because THAT'S who we fear...but how do we tell the difference between a terrorist and a normal person? You can't, and that's why there's racial profiling.

The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist act committed by a White American Male

This is true, but you don't see white americans rampaging the entire planet. This was an isolated incident. Al-Queda and radical muslims are blowing things up left and right across the entire planet, and that's why we fear them. If white americans started doing the same thing, yeah, I'd probably be suspicious of ever white american I came across (heh, I'm already fearful of a lot of americans already...but not because of terrorism.)

[edit on 30-8-2007 by Jaruseleh]

Racial profiling is not only wrong, it's the act of terrorists. And I'm not talking about people of Arabic decent. I'm talking about the terror spread by the gov't through the media.

Check this. I bought a car last year from a Canadian, born and raise. It, and he, were a piece of work. I've dumped plenty into it since then. Last week I got a sweet deal from a guy named Mohammed. A good car, a pleasant transaction. He was calling ME sir even though he was my senior. Nope. Racial profiling is wrong. "What are you going to do?" Stop letting the homeland terrorist hold you in fear. That would be a good start.

Funny to see how profiling is getting out of hand, I speak Spanish but until now I have no problem in any airport while speaking Spanish in front of only English speaking people.

Sad very sad.

Okay I will go along with your stories. If America starts clamping down harder
on Muslims, then you will see more recruits to Al Qaeda. Why do I say this?
what would you do if you were harassed every other day, people started calling
you a terrorist and such? If a person is pushed into a corner there is no way
to get out but to fight. Arabs are starting to get pushed into the corner now,
so if this continues on you will see more and more terrorists in America. Once
more and more start getting pushed in the corner you will see attacks everywhere in the world.
Then you will start blaming Islam, but meanwhile they are just getting sick of
people harassing them, and making all these claims.

Originally posted by Equinox99
Okay I will go along with your stories. If America starts clamping down harder
on Muslims, then you will see more recruits to Al Qaeda. Why do I say this?
what would you do if you were harassed every other day, people started calling
you a terrorist and such? If a person is pushed into a corner there is no way
to get out but to fight. Arabs are starting to get pushed into the corner now,
so if this continues on you will see more and more terrorists in America. Once
more and more start getting pushed in the corner you will see attacks everywhere in the world.
Then you will start blaming Islam, but meanwhile they are just getting sick of
people harassing them, and making all these claims.

I totally agree with that. There are definately 2 sides to the story. Americans are scared because they think any arab they see is a potential terrorist, and Arabs are angry because of that. Like I said, it's a lose-lose situation. I certainly don't want things to be this way, but the fact of the matter is that they are, and they're that way because of Terrorists, not because of Arabs, and not because of our government. Going into Iraq may or may not have been the right thing to do, but it didn't happen until AFTER terrorist attacks...before then, americans really weren't suspicious of Arabs at all, for the most part...at least, not that I know of.

America's always had some issue or another with racial profiling and stereotyping, be it african american, muslim, hispanic, even asian. But cowering in fear because someone speaks a language that is associated with terrorism is pathetic. Its very much so a double edged sword whether or not determining a muslim or iraqi or whomever on a plane is simply a commuter or a terrorist. We shouldn't live in fear, is what I think. Although, I have a question.... Ever since a year after 9-11 how many plane threats have we had concerning iraqis/muslims? I haven't read much about any type of plot via media about how they arrested some guys or whatever at the airport talking about bombs. I figured the hype over muslims boarding airlines was long calmed? I guess not...

Originally posted by Jaruseleh
This is true, but you don't see white americans rampaging the entire planet.

Yes we do. Americans have now devastated two countries and killed countless civilians in a war that is both unjust and illegal.

The results of this war is the down right racist view of many people these days. Now we see this, a plane being stopped for someone speaking in their own language, which is sickening.

Were all human and we have to stop this petty, frankly childish profiling of people simply because of the way they look or talk.

I will give you this situation in the Columbine Massacre.
2 kids were bullied their whole lives, and people really disliked them.
The kids came back and shot up the school. So this is exactly what is going
to happen, and Al Qaeda is manipulating this to recruit more soldier. If Arabs
were treated the same as every other person in the states, then they will
stand stronger because they are treated more friendly. Look at the projects,
some African American men hate white people, because they were the majority
middle class.
If you hate a certain type of people or race, and so does your country then it
will come back and bite you in the rear end.

reply to post by Equinox99


Bad joke alert: So We can blame music for Al Qiada's creation? Yeah yeah bad joke sorry it was out there on the table....Anyway back to serious talk!

Equinox99, your posts in this thread have been among the most intelligent I have read in a long while, very valid points and a very good view on this subject. If I could still hand out WATS then you'd receive one.

Racial profiling, in my eyes, should be illegal. Grouping millions, billions just because of a petty view is pathetic and should not be tolerated by anyone.