Dr. Ahmed Farooq, a Muslim, is demanding an apology from United Airlines after being removed from his flight. Apparently a passenger heard Farooq praying and 'alerted' the flight crew. The crew proceeded to remove Dr. Farooq and his two colleagues from the plane while in Denver, CO. As a result, they had to stay over night and catch another flight -- at their own expense.
He and his colleagues were returning from a conference in San Francisco.
CBC News quotes Farooq as saying:
"The whole situation is just really frustrating. It makes you uneasy, because you realize you have to essentially watch every single thing you say and do, and it's worse for people who are of colour, who are identifiable as a minority."
Farooq alledges that the passenger who reported him was drunk and also threatened him.
I decided to run a google search to see how many news organizations picked up this story. The results did not surprise me. I found the following:
Muslim doctor wants apology - CBC News
Canadian doctor removed from flight - Gulf News
The CBC is a Canadian news source. There were other Canadian news sites that picked up the story from this article by paraphrasing, so I did not mention them. The Gulf News covers the United Arab Emirates.
So why wasn't I surprised? Because not one U.S. source came up in my search covering this story...
-- Kirshan Murphy, BlackintheCity.net