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MP stopped from boarding Air Canada flight as ‘his name was Mohammad’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 10 months ago by NightOwl@lemm.ee to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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[-] Squeak@lemmy.world 40 points 10 months ago

The title is a bit clickbaity. He wasn’t stopped from boarding, he had to go through additional security checks. He claims he was told he had to go through the checks because his name was Mohammad… although that’s just him saying that.

I live in UK and I’d say around 50% of the flights I’ve taken to/from US I’ve been pulled aside for extra checks. Many times both on the way out and way back for a 100% check rate on that single trip.

If they did actually say it was due to his name being Mohammad then yeah that’s really bad, but this sounds like they’re making something of nothing. And at no point was he stopped from boarding.

[-] geolaw@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 10 months ago

They could have done it because of his name, but just not admitted it, or given no reason at all. Systemic racism is hard to prove, which means it can be remarkably persistent

[-] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

As someone who looks exactly like the people they should stop and who flew our of Boston after 9/11, I doubt it, I haven't had much more than a few shabby things and they go through all my electronics.

Best guess he rolled a 1 when it came to random searches and he reacted poorly.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

he reacted poorly

He's an MP. Of course he acted poorly, none of them have any kind of grace under pressure. The way he complained about it in the House is rather telling, he was complaining mostly that it was done to him even though he was an MP not that it was done to him at all.

Who cares if it happens to the plebs but not the people like him.

That said he's only the MP for Bradford which a bit like being the MP for a nuclear waste dump, if the nuclear waste dump was a particularly unattractive one.