Reply #77: It's amazing how the word Jew or Muslim . . [View All]

[msmcghee]

. . can cause such a furor here on DU.

The cabin attendant was in a position of responsibility for maintaining the well being and sense of security of all the passengers on board. She was trained for the job and obviously took her role seriously.

It seems to me that such moving back and forth with eyes closed and muttering something could be disturbing to some passengers. Risk is a factor of both probability and the possible consequences.

Based on her statements, I think she was reasonably sure that the probability was low but factored in the possible consequences for being wrong - and concluded there was some risk - and expected reasonably that some other passengers would conclude the same thing.

I also think that people who feel a need to express their religious passions should do so when and where it is unlikely to make others uncomfortable - especially where others' safety is involved. If his religious beliefs required him to rock back and forth in a way that some would find unusual - and he just couldn't do it before or after the flight - perhaps he should have taken a train out of consideration for the other passengers or just not done it at all. I doubt he would have to spend eternity in hell for that.

These are not easy times to travel. IMO passengers should not expect that their particular religious practices are more important than the sense of security of the several hundred other passengers on a plane. Most people who found it disturbing would not say so out of fear of being seen as religiously insensitive. They would expect that the trained cabin attendant would make that decision on their behalf - and she did.

Travelers should expect that the airline personnel would not expose them to unnecessarily disturbing religious practices of other travelers. Remember that almost all airline crashes caused by human intent have been caused by persons who believed their God wanted them to kill people in his name. Very few have been caused for secular reasons - although that happens. Those who insist on displaying their religious practices in public are certainly in the category of those who take their religion with a certain impositional seriousness - because that's what they are doing. Itzak Rabin was assasinated in 1995 by a religious Jew.

Yigal Amir, a 27-year-old Jewish law student, told police that he had "no regrets" and was acting on the "orders of God." According to Israeli radio, when he was told that Rabin died in surgery after being shot in the arm and back, Amir said, "I'm satisfied."

If he was a Muslim and knelt down on the floor to do his prayers toward Mecca people would justifiably have freaked out. By not removing the Jew under similar circumstances the airline would rightly be seen as profiling. In this case they obviously were not.

We all have to deal with shit when we travel by plane these days. He should not have expected that his religion was more important than the comfort of the other passengers. The cabin attendant did the right thing IMO.