The police report states: “Timothy stated Khaled pulled the ‘race card.’...I asked Timothy if he touched Khaled which he stated no he is lying.” Also, “Khaled said he was waiting to speak to the pilot in the isle [sic] and the pilot pulled him by his jacket and told him to come here. Khaled stated first it was battery, second it was an assault, and third it was condescending because he was 40 years old.....Khaled refused any type of prosecution for assault.”
If the pilot really grabbed Beydoun by his neck, as Beydoun claimed on Twitter, that’s assault. Why not press charges?
Anyway, here we have a professor of “Islamophobia” accused of playing the “race card” when he was bumped from first class. I’ve been bumped from first class for exactly the same reason that he was bumped. Was that a noble flight attendant strike against “Islamophobia”? One would have to be peculiarly self-obsessed and self-important to think that these kinds of incidents are directed at oneself personally.
Whose version is more plausible? On the one hand we have an “Islamophobia” propagandist claiming he was bumped from first class because of “Islamophobia,” and then assaulted by an “Islamophobic” Delta captain, to whom the police spoke first when they arrived, because of, you guessed it, “Islamophobia.” Despite being assaulted, the “Islamophobia” victim refuses to press charges.
Then on the other hand we have a Delta captain saying that the “Islamophobia” propagandist played the “race card” in complaining about being bumped from first class, and further stating that the propagandist lied in saying that the captain had assaulted him.
Which version is more plausible?
People will see what they want to see here, but there are so many fake “Islamophobic” hate crimes, it isn’t hard to believe that Khaled Beydoun is a fantasist as well as a crusader (ha) against a fictional evil.
An update on this story. “Passenger complains about Delta pilot after landing at XNA, sees racial profiling,” by Max Brantley, Arkansas Times, February 11, 2019:
Khaled Beydoun, a law professor, civil rights activist and author of a book on Islamaphobia, has stirred wide interest on Twitter with his account of treatment by the pilot of a regional jet after landing Sunday evening at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
Beydoun, who I’ve been unable to reach, has written in multiple posts on Twitter that the pilot put his hands on him and treated him “like a criminal” when he tried to talk to him about a complaint. Beydoun’s complaint, which he didn’t specify on Twitter, apparently stemmed from his reassignment from a business class seat to a seat in the plane’s “comfort class,” which has extra legroom but not as much space as the first cabin. Beydoun suggested he may have been reassigned because of race and his Muslim religion. He wrote in one of the Twitter posts:
“I know that Flying While Brown has always been a concern. But now Landing While Brown is also frightening.”
Beydoun, 40, was flying on a Delta flight in a 76-seat regional jet operated by Endeavor Air. He’d apparently been upgraded from a main cabin ticket to 1C through a frequent flyer perk, but learned in boarding that he wouldn’t be allowed to take the seat. The airline says the seat had to be taken by a flight attendant under aircraft operating rules because the jumpseat the attendant normally would use was inoperable. Beydoun objected and suggested he was being racially or religiously profiled. The airline attendant denied that.
The encounter with the pilot came as Beydoun waited on the jet bridge for his bag at the Arkansas airport. He wrote that the pilot directed him to come to him and grabbed him by the neck. The pilot disputed any physical contact, both in a report taken by airport police and in a prepared Delta statement.
“Delta is aware of the allegations and we are investigating. Based upon the information available to us at this time we understand the following:
A customer on Endeavor Air flight 5325 was reseated from seat 1C to 5B to accommodate a working crewmember in seat 1C due to an inoperative jump seat, as is required by Endeavor’s standard operating procedures. We regret that the customer perceived the seat change was anything but procedural. Prior to departure, Delta apologized to the customer for the seat change and provided a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience.
Upon arrival at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) the customer requested to speak with the Captain regarding his seating concerns. The Captain spoke with the customer in the jet bridge but ultimately requested the presence of law enforcement in response to false allegations of physical contact. We take any such allegations seriously and Delta is in contact with the customer.
His posts have prompted thousands of responses, many sympathetic and some derogatory about Arkansas and the South. The Clinton National Airport posted on Twitter to make clear the episode hadn’t happened in Little Rock.
