I know I've been extremely negligent in the upkeep of this blog...I've just had too many things to do, and life has gotten in the way of blogging. When I saw this story linked on Drudge today, though, I just had to make a note of it.
Three Arab princesses of the Qatar royal family were returning home from a shopping trip in Milan, Italy via British Airways. The problem: apparently, their assigned seats had them sitting next to men that they didn't know...and being ultra-conservative Muslim women, they had a problem with that.
The princesses were traveling with the Emir of Qatar and several servants. After everyone had been seated and the plane had taxied to the runway, one or two of the male members of the group apparently noticed where the women were seated, and took issue.
They argued with the flight attendants and with the pilot for around two and a half hours, with the pilot trying unsuccsesfully to get passengers to trade seats; those who were traveling together were unwilling to break up their groups.
Finally, the entire party from Qatar was thrown off of the plane, citing safety concerns: while on the runway, two of them stood up and refused to sit down, apparently thinking they were entitled to dictate which seats they could have.
Passengers whistled and clapped as the Emir, the princesses, and their entourage were removed from the plane.
I call this progress. Had this happened in the United States, chances are that the flight crew would have been so afraid of a law suit over offending some Muslims that the delay would have taken even longer...or after the group was kicked off of the plane, they would be facing a law suit from some liberal group such as CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic
