Beware the beards of doom!

Is this an example of security conscious passengers or a mass outbreak of bigotry?

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 a Malaga-Manchester flight overheard two men of Asian appearance apparently talking Arabic.

Passengers told cabin crew they feared for their safety and demanded police action. Some stormed off the Monarch Airlines Airbus A320 minutes before it was due to leave the Costa del Sol at 3am. Others waiting for Flight ZB 613 in the departure lounge refused to board it.

The Monarch pilot accompanied by armed Civil Guard police and airport security staff, approached the two men and took their passports. Half an hour later, police returned and escorted the two Asian passengers off the jet.

Websites used by pilots and cabin crew were yesterday reporting further incidents. In one, two British women with young children on another flight from Spain complained about flying with a bearded Muslim even though he had been security-checked twice before boarding.

They were speaking Arabic! They had beards! Guitly as charged!

Bigotry it is then.

UPDATE: Osama Saeed adds this...

The incident is so bad that even the Tories have condemned it. The Mail however, manages to write a whole article about the incident without using the term "Islamophobia". They actually describe the men as "Asian", despite the fact they spoke Arabic.

One of the families on the flight are interviewed like they were the victims. Would love to see one of the tabloids doing a heart-to-heart with the guys who were humiliated.

Best of luck on seeing that Osama, I doubt that kind of honest reporting will ever come out of The Mail or many of its contempories.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald makes a good point here....

The blame lies not with those who entertain such fears, but with those who allow those fears to govern their conduct, and more so, those who purposely stoke and exaggerate those fears due either to their own fears and/or because doing so is to their advantage.

He also points out to this statement coming from the UK Conservative Party of all places....

Patrick Mercer, the Tory Homeland Security spokesman, said last night: "This is a victory for terrorists. These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally."

For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense."

Somehow I can't imagine a Republican politician downplaying a 'terror alert' and being so sensible about this bizarre event.

Update: Here are some of those "oh, so tolerant and intelligent" Lizards on the subject....

1 Liz Ard 8/19/2006 05:54PM PDT

we're all essentially on our own (we're doomed, doomed, I tells ye! get that woman some Pampers - ed). Even Israel Defense Forces were not able to fight a proper war against Hezb'allah- what do you expect our governments to do (not listen to hysterical buffoons like you would be a start - ed)?

#5 doppelganglander 8/19/2006 05:55PM PDT

What's irrational about being afriad of Arabic speakers? They're just alert.

#9 dead sea squirrel 8/19/2006 05:56PM PDT

They sounded rational to me. Heavy clothing in warm weather (wasn't that the same excuse that came out about Jean Charles de Menezes before the Met killed him? And then turned out to be false? - ed)? Excessively checking their watches? (While travelling? Who'd have thunk it - ed)

People are getting fed up with governments more concerned about being PC than they are about the safety of their own citizens.

#10 Promethea 8/19/2006 05:58PM PDT

This kind of "mutiny" is excellent news. Much more worrisome are the kinds of public behaviors that permit dangerous looking people to proceed because people are afraid of confrontation or of embarrassing themselves.

I've often wondered what I personally would do if I saw a suspicious person on a public bus, for example.

On the other hand, on a recent flight, I sat next to a Lebanese man, and I "interviewed" him, and he knew that I was "interviewing" him. If he resented it, well too bad.

#31 FrogMarch 8/19/2006 06:08PM PDT

I am so glad this happened. IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Arabs and Muslims need to feel the pain.
Arabs and Muslims need to understand completely that this is what they have done.

The rest of us are not going to put up with the fear of death. These days, death on aircraft
only comes in a single form: Islam.

ENOUGH!

#32 cbinflux 8/19/2006 06:08PM PDT

Those guys were trying to make folks nervous. I'll bet the delay took the giggles right out of them.

#39 rokbassist 8/19/2006 06:12PM PDT

Well, we saw what happened when someone witnessed Middle-eastern looking men going in and out of the bathroom with a paper bag. Absolutely nothing. I'm glad passengers are becoming more aware and more pro-active, because our friggin governments aren't doing a damn thing! FINALLY, self-preservation is growing upon the masses, because our governments aren't doing doing squat to make you safe. This is even more remarkable with the British citizens, who seem to be in some sort of coma excepting soccer hooligans, of course (well known defenders of western civilisation? - ed).

#44 RepJ 8/19/2006 06:13PM PDT

Once again, the MSM calls them "Asians" and British citizens instead of telling it like it is. While they are technically correct, why don't they just come out and say the men were Arab in appearance (Yep why not just call them what they were! We're all for that. Let's start by calling them 'innocent travellers'. - ed) and the passengers decided they needed extra scrutiny. If the two men are innocent of any wrongdoing, then they did the right thing by cooperating w/the authorities. I hope they understand the stressful times that we live in.

Sensible Lizardoid Alert (below)!

#59 mich-again 8/19/2006 06:20PM PDT

I don't get it. So we should all refuse to board a plane if there are Arabic passengers speaking Arabic. Geeze, they might as well shut down DTW.

I'm not jumping on this bandwagon. Thats not say that I don't think Islamic terrorists will continue plotting to blow up airplanes, but I seriously doubt that if/when they do try, the would-be killers will be so easy to spot.

Are we advocating separate airplanes for Muslims? Nice. Where does that line of thinking stop?

More idiocy.....

#62 wordwolf 8/19/2006 06:21PM PDT

I think cbinflux has it just right: These clowns were probably playing terrorist, as in, "Hey Fawaz, let's see if we can't give these infidels a little scare, put the fear of Allah into 'em, yuk yuk..."

And until their "landsmen" react to this sort o' thing with denunciations of irresponsibility, poor citizenship, and just plain BAD MANNERS instead of cries of racism and victimization, the rest of us will just trust them - ALL of them - less and less until some of those victimization nightmares start coming true.

#71 doppelganglander 8/19/2006 06:25PM PDT

#59 mich-again: It seems to have been more than just speaking Arabic. They were checking their watches frequently and wearing heavy sweaters and leather jackets in Spain in August. I've been in Spain in August, and that's just insane (insane I tell's ye! If it turns out to be true, it could be considered odd but certainly not insane. - ed).

#89 JammieWearingFool 8/19/2006 06:33PM PDT

If you're on a plane with me, bet your ass I've profiled you (Woooh, scary - ed).

#94 cbinflux 8/19/2006 06:34PM PDT

Mich*again
We all know that you're reasonable, and would never do or condone anything bigoted.

I should have added that there have been dozens of reported instances of Muslims trying to make folks nervous since 9/11. Some of them quite famous. I've seen it in Memphis and o'seas, especially Germany. Trying to make our skin crawl.

I truly believe that's what these knuckleheads were up to; thousands are being trained in hatred, mockery, taqqiya, etc. weekly in UK mosques and streets.

They had the same possum-eatin-sh*t grins on the inside as the poster ladies are displaying. Just my opinion.

#103 armytramp 8/19/2006 06:37PM PDT

Excuse me, but I speak a little Arabic, and when I have a cab driver next to me who spends the entire trip talking into a headset about dawa, surrah, sunnah, hadith, jihad, and koran, I get nervous. This has actually happened to me. (Cab drivers speaking Arabic? About Islam in a taxi! Panty-wetting time - ed)

And am I the only one who remembers hearing Arabs brag about how funny it is to make the white folks squirm? Didn't this board have a link to internet postings about Arabs laughing about going out of their way to do odd things to make the dhimmis upset on airplanes?

If someone is acting suspiciously, do what you have to do. And if some Arab dude spends a half hour in the john after being airborne, he may just have the trots, or he may be testing the limits of security on that flight...or he may be making a bomb. Don't take chances.

The next bomber may not look like an Arab. Report anyone who acts out of the ordinary. You know, like the creepy British guy who tries to light up his shoe.

I happen to think the mutiny is a GOOD THING and if it had happened before, and we'd had more awareness of the situation, and we'd had more people who knew they had the right to fight back, maybe their would have been fewer deaths on 9-11. Stop being treated like SHEEPLE! Protect yourselves.

#104 Pastorius 8/19/2006 06:37PM PDT

If you ask me, this is the first shot in the great European Civil War that Fjordman warned us about (Wasn't Fjordman the person who believes there is a "cult of Anne Frank" that protects the "Holocaust taboo", why yes, of course it is - ed).

Sure, we have had hooligans firebomb mosques, and Muslims have been beaten in the streets, but this is the first mainstream revolt against the dhimmi-practices of Eurabia.

Let the fun begin.

Continues for another mind-numbing, brain draining, bigot fuelled 388 comments...

UPDATE: More interesting thoughts over at Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Shorter various blogospheric wingnuts: the government's appalling lack of racism gives people no recourse but to take racism into their own hands.

Source: Islamophobia Watch & The Mail on Sunday

LGF comments from http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22183