Regarding this young man who was forced off of an airplane, allegedly because he spoke Arabic…
Prejudice and discrimination exist, as does paranoia, as does exaggeration, and also genuine misunderstandings and overreactions. I do not know what happened on the plane prior to the brother’s video clip, and neither does anyone else who wasn’t there. The statement by the airline, and the result of their interviews with passengers, for obvious reasons, are both unreliable. The accusation that the incident was staged is purely conjecture, with no evidence to support it except that one of the men involved is famous on the internet for staging pranks. That is not really sufficient to discredit him.
Plenty of Arabic-speakers ride on planes, speak their native tongue on the phone or to fellow passengers who speak Arabic, and they are not forced to leave the airplane. But, is it possible that this particular plane happened to be carrying a selection of racist, paranoid Islamaphobes? Sure. Is it possible that these same people, when interviewed by Delta Airlines all said that their discomfort had nothing to do with Arabic or Islam? Is it possible that the type of questions asked by Delta staff “helped” the passengers answer in a way that would help the airline avoid a lawsuit? That should be pretty obvious.
Is it also possible that the young man speaking Arabic to his elderly mother on a mobile phone perhaps raised his voice and spoke in an emotional manner? I think it is impossible that it could have been otherwise. I know when I first came to Islam and began socializing with Arabs, whenever they spoke to each other, it sounded to me like they were having a heated argument, even if they were actually just saying what a lovely meal they just ate. And is it possible that, when this young man was told about the concerns of other passengers, he became defensive and overreacted, and the situation escalated? Again, that seems pretty plausible to me.
From my own experience as a Muslim in the West, I can honestly say that when incidents like this occur, there tends to be blame enough to go around on all sides.
At the end of the day, we don’t know, and I don’t think it is appropriate to assume that we do. A boycott of Delta Airlines seems a bit much.
Personally, I am more concerned about a sister being kicked down the stairs because she is wearing hijab, or someone trying to push a Muslimah in front of a train. You may say that we shouldn’t differentiate between things like that and the incident on the plane, because they both reflect a growing hostility towards Muslims. But, frankly, I think that they are different scenarios altogether, and deserve very different levels of concern. And if we treat minor instances of bias (if this was, in fact, bias) the same way we treat actual violence, we will only increase the level of irrational prejudice and increase the dangers that accompany it.