Three young British Muslims were removed from a plane in London following an accusation from a passenger calling them ISIS members.
Sakina Dharas, along with her siblings Maryam and Ali Dharas, were allegedly asked to leave an EasyJet flight from London to Naples after a passenger saw seeing Arabic on their phone.
As Sakina detailed in a Facebook post, a flight attendant asked them to follow her without explaining the situation, before leading the trio off the plane. The siblings were then told that policemen and other men waiting below wanted to speak to them.
As Sakina explained, one of the officers asked if any of the trio spoke English, to which she replied “We only speak English, officer. We were born and bred in England.”
Police then informed Sakina of the passenger observation, that ‘they saw you with Arabic or praise be to Allah on your phone’.
As Sakina further detailed: “Firstly, that’s part of the Qur’an, our religious text, so even if we did have it, it wouldn’t signify that we’re a part of ISIS at all, but regardless, we’ve had nothing on our phone remotely Arabic related this morning. Also, we’re Indian by ethnicity, so we wouldn’t even have Arabic in conversation with anyone.”
These siblings were marched off a plane.Their "crime"? Reading a text message and "Flying While Muslim". pic.twitter.com/PxuisM7qEd
— AssedBaig (@AssedBaig) August 24, 2016
Sakina further elaborated on the situation, explaining how all three members of the family were questioned by police for an hour about all the places stamped on their passport, their social media accounts, and other information.
In an addition note, Sakina, a graduate of University College London, made mention of how she and her sister, who both wear hijabs, were accused while their “white-skinned, green-eyed” brother was not.
At the end of the ordeal Sakina wrote that the officers apologised and said they had to respond to “threats” like this one, adding that the accusers were “frightened.”
Both Essex Police and Easyjet have released statements in the aftermath of the event, but as Sakina asks,”What are my rights? We would only have been allowed back on the plane if there wasn’t a shred of doubt on their part, so someone must be the liar here, in which case, why were those passengers not removed for wasting police time, LYING, making false allegations and racial profiling?”
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