I guess it is time to boycott United Airlines because this has to be one of the more egregious acts of intolerance I have seen in a while.
When flight attendants urged the man, who was carrying a religious book, to take his seat, he ignored them, Brafman said. Two friends, who were seated, tried to tell the attendants that the man couldn't stop until his prayers were over in about 2 minutes, he said.
"He doesn't respond to them, but his friends explain that once you start praying you can't stop," said Brafman, who was seated three rows away.
When the man finally stopped praying, he explained that he couldn't interrupt his religious ritual and wasn't trying to be rude. But the attendants summoned a guard to remove him, said Brafman, a writer who had been visiting New York to talk to publishers.
He had to ignore them because an Orthodox Jew that starts praying is not supposed to stop until he is done. He even explained the situation after he was done but the stiff-necked flight attendants had a guard remove him anyway. They couldn't show the guy even a little bit of tolerance and compassion and had to lay the smack-down. I think they should make these flight attendants take a "religions of the world" class or something so they can recognize what is happening.
2 comments:
Not that UA discriminates, but remember 9/11. Individuals don't have free will in airports and on planes. Although I'm all about religion, I keep that at home. Praying is good, but one has to distinguish praying for peace and praying for "martyr".
Before you create hate mongering and malign a good airline please get your facts straight. The individual was asked several times to be seated. He was also not removed by a GUARD as you incorrectly reported. He was removed by a customer service representative. Last time I checked, there was a difference between a guard and a CSR however I guess it doesn't sound as good if you had written customer service representative. Bottom line is there are rules to be followed. Religion does not and should not take precedence. This gentlemen should have been sensitive to the other several hundred passengers, not the other way around. United Airlines did the right thing and by the way, I am jewish!
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