The Deen Show – How To Deal With Religious Discrimination While Flying
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Bismillah Alhamdulillah I have our sister
from care. Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Dhaka I run the care San Francisco Bay Area office and I'm a civil rights lawyer. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna ask the first question. Is that okay with you guys?
All right. You're all on the show.
Many Muslims are flying nowadays. We got to get here, we got to get there and have faced much discriminate. Some have faced. There's a lot of good people. And sometimes we highlight a lot of the bad but there is much more good overcoming the bed. I think so what do you think? Yes, I think that there are so many more people who are saying, we want to stand with the Muslim community, especially post Trump like, there is hope. And I know we're not alone. 100. And now, you've had people also on the other side, they spoken Arabic.
And they said God is great. All praise to God sin unbelievable. The greeting of Jesus, and they got kicked off playing recently. I think we can derive some benefit from this story. There was a brother that went viral all over. And he was saying he was speaking to his mom and then kick them off and etc, etc. So the two points to this question one is, and then there's the bait. About Was it a praying? Was it this that and that goes back to what I was saying earlier? Following the prophet SAW some hidden when we're choking, we're honest notes. Okay. Oh, my friends know. Now.
The important thing is, what do you do your attorney if you come across? And what constitutes racism or Islamophobia and you're in this predicament, right? You're an older lady, older man, young man, young woman, and and give us a live example of really, there's no debate about it, or someone actually went through something of this and how to handle it. Right. Good question. So in the past year, we've received at least a dozen complaints from across the country, people have been kicked off planes, some legitimate some questions, it's always hard to say. So here's my recommendation to people who might be traveling, get to the airport on time, be polite, and be courteous, know that
everything that you put in your bags, and your electronics can be searched. And then also, the reality is the airline staff have a lot of discretion, they can kick people off of planes. They can't do it for racial or religious reasons. But what gets challenging is proving that right. So if I'm yelling on the plane, in English and Arabic and Spanish and ooredoo, they can kick me off. But if they only kick off people yelling in Arabic, then that's going to be discriminatory. The hard part is proving it. So what I tell people is look, dot your I's, cross your T's be a well behaved passenger. And then if something happens, call care. Don't make it worse, don't get into a physical
altercation. You don't have to answer any questions from law enforcement. And generally, airlines have been good about putting people on the next flight because they want to protect themselves from a lawsuit. Now, that doesn't mean that there isn't legal recourse there is but that's where you call care. Don't start a fight. Get off the plane. Be polite, call care if you can. Here's the thing that I think technology and cell phones matter, record the interaction. Don't be confrontational and doing this. And this is, by the way, something that everyone can do. So if I'm getting kicked off, and brother Eddie's like, what, like what's happening to sister's opera, he can pull out his cell
phone and start recording. And that's really helpful later, when I'm saying, hey, it was because I'm Muslim. And Delta Airlines is like, No, no, it's because you were this. Well, brother Eddie has a video that says who was right and who was wrong and provides more context, and it's a little bit more neutral, have a video, if it's not my video, because I'm going to cut a video and edit a video to protect myself. Delta is going to do the same thing. And so brother, Eddie's video is going to be really helpful.
Let me get one more can I get one more?
Yeah, yeah, let me hear you guys. Good. Got your permission, and I'll open up is good.
Okay, now you're on social media, right? And you see, there's a lot of people out there they've been affected by the Islamophobia machine. quarter million dollars annually. Spent throwing dirt on Islam So Mr. Wood God, and now you see something out there, and you get all emotional. And a lot of the things you ignore because Okay, there's a lot of trolls, but how would you respond? Have you ever watched real fortune? Yes, it's been a while love connection. Also, do you know when you heard now it's one thing when you just a layman is saying certain things. But how do you take it How would you respond? Let's say to a famous
The visual
one in particular, really sad to me, hopefully this can reach our brother to humanity and others who just kind of fit in and they just start throwing dirt also. So the tweet one of those something like this, can I just say that 10 years ago at conferences like this, we didn't talk about Twitter because it wasn't even a real thing, which is interesting about time is amazing.
So now you're on Twitter. And now you experienced the Islamophobia. chukwuma, you maybe grew up maybe some of you guys, you're a little bit young, but your parents or whatnot, or you see someone else you identified with someone else from a reality show something else that maybe you wasted your time at one time. And now you see this person saying something similar to what this man said. He said, If you don't know Islam is evil, misquoting him. No. If you don't know Islam is evil, then you don't know history and you refuse to reason. I'm not saying that every Muslim is evil, different. Now Muslims, like hold on Islam is evil. I'm practicing Islam, I must be evil. Maybe I will do some
evil. No, no, no, no. How would you respond to Chuck, if you saw and empower the youth here not to get shaken by things like this?
Can I take one step back and say something about social media that I always want to make sure young people understand and elders understand too, everything you put on the internet is permanent. So if I, here's what I say if it leaves your lips, or fingertips, it is forever. Allah season, the NSA reads it, it ends up in an FBI file, and it could end up on the front page of the New York Times. Now that's true, whether we're talking about extramarital affairs, like a former senator from New York, or we're talking about how we feel about ISIS and Al Qaeda, right, is that when you delete it from the internet, it doesn't go away forever. And that's really important to remember when I see
horrible Islamophobia, or when I see injustice is across the world. And I want to type something ridiculous, right? once it's there, it's forever, even to the companies take it, the FBI can see it. And we know that they look at our files, my haters are going to screenshot it. So if I'm like, Oh, my God, I hate brother, Eddie, this show is so horrible. I can't believe I was on a panel with him. Someone's going to take a screenshot of that, and it's forever. Twitter has it right. So like important to remember. Once it leaves your lips are fingertips Allah sees it. And everyone else does, too. There is no take backs. Think about that before you hit send or before you hit post. So
what do I do with Chuck and others who were talking anti muslim trash on the internet?
I would screenshot it. Right. Because you want to make sure this is true. Sometimes if it's a elected official, you want to go after them, you're going to need the screenshot because they're going to take it down. And it's easier for you to access that. I want to think about who their friends are. So one of the things to be strategic about is, I don't know, Chuck, why is Trump going to listen to me? Maybe he will write, but maybe he's gonna listen to other people. The other thing that we say to people is like be be thoughtful about your approach. So
look, Donald Trump might be beyond reason for me. Like I'm not sure that I can have a nice conversation with Donald Trump. Of course, if Omar really a loved one who converted to Islam, on his way to kill the prophet SAW him send them anything is possible. I'm just not sure I'm the person to have a courteous conversation with Donald Trump, or Chuck or others leave Donald to me. Yes. Okay, good. So he's got Donald, I'm not even sure that I could do it with Chuck, I'm not sure that I have that kind of patience. But there are some people who have tried that, right. So the two things that I would suggest, one, see who their friends and influencers are. Maybe there's someone that's going
to be more sympathetic, that they will listen to that you can get to first right in that same way, like, Look, I want mom to get me to give me permission for something maybe I'm gonna ask my favorite her favorites kid, not like it's not gonna be asked, Is it going to come from me now that mom has favorite kids? And then the other thing, I think about engaging in patient conversation, if I go and talk and I'm like, you're a racist, You're horrible about dairy. That might turn him off. That's not to say that some people don't deserve that. They absolutely do. But in some cases, the first way to try is patient conversation.
What would you give me give me a minute. A personal Chuck, you know, it's such a small world. Chuck Lorre. He checks the tweet. Chuck, we got a love for you. That's what we're sending you this message. Give a personal one thing what would you say to a person when you hear something like this didn't didn't maybe. Who knows? Islam needs to seriously look into it. It just pendant taste, it penetrates the heart. That's why it's the fastest one way of life out there that provides peace and purpose and empowerment. Tony, talk to Joe
Chuck because he might he might never he might never make that human connection.
I'd love to talk to Donald Trump. They might never meet them.
Hello. So you meet them Chuck.
Chuck, I love ice cream and coffee. If you are down to talk, I think Edie and I would be willing to have ice cream and coffee with you and just talk to you about Islam and Muslims. answer any questions that might be that you might have or clarify any misunderstandings that you might have. What's to say ice cream is on us
outside but I don't do the sugar. I'll take it.
I'll do the juice. I want to do some vegetable juice. People are less nice over juice.
Okay, your guys turn Go ahead.