Wednesday, September 06, 2006

PRAYER ON THE DO NOT FLY LIST?

An Hasidic Jew was removed from a Canadian airplane for praying:
Some fellow passengers are questioning why an Orthodox Jewish man was removed from an Air Canada Jazz flight in Montreal last week for praying.

The man was a passenger on a Sept. 1 flight from Montreal to New York City when the incident happened.

The airplane was heading toward the runway at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport when eyewitnesses said the Orthodox man began to pray.

"He was clearly a Hasidic Jew," said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby. "He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a book.

"He wasn't exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth," Faguy added.

The action didn't seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making other passengers nervous.

"The attendant actually recognized out loud that he wasn't a Muslim and that she was sorry for the situation but they had to ask him to leave," Faguy said.

The man, who spoke neither English nor French, was escorted off the airplane.

The airline claims they needed to take him to an interpreter in order to speak with him. Still, it was the praying that got him ousted.

These days, I'd say there's a lot of praying on airplanes. There certainly is from me when I'm flying.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I pray when I fly too Alan. I think many Christians do. :)

Joel