Iraqi Peace Activist Forced to Change T-Shirt Bearing Arabic Script Before Boarding Plane

Three young Winnipeg doctors -- one a Muslim -- were kicked off a flight home from Denver earlier this week after a passenger falsely identified them as a terrorist threat.

Dr. Ahmed Farooq, a fourth-year radiology resident, and two physician friends want an apology from United Airlines and assurances staff will be better trained to identify genuine threats.

Winnipeg Centre MP Pat Martin has also asked federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to raise the issue with his counterpart in Washington.

"It's the most egregious example of this device of racial profiling I know about among my constituents," said Martin. "These are valuable, upstanding members of our society. Civil rights shouldn't be collateral damage in this whole fight against terrorism."

But officials with United Airlines say they are obliged to take any allegations threatening passenger safety seriously, particularly in a period of heightened tension like the one following last week's discovery of a British terrorist plot targeting transatlantic flights.

Farooq, 27, and his fellow residents were on their way home from a physics course near San Francisco, Calif., in preparation for an upcoming board exam. They were settling into their connecting flight from Denver to Winnipeg when Farooq asked his friend -- a young doctor of East Indian decent who did not want his name published -- to switch seats. Farooq was looking for some privacy so he could discreetly recite his evening prayers.

Shortly before take-off, the two doctors noticed a young man seated a row ahead was giving them distasteful looks and at one point threatened to "pound" Farooq.

Farooq and his friends learned later the passenger, who had clearly been drinking, told a flight attendant he had overheard Farooq's friend say "Now, I can control the aisle."

The aircraft returned to the terminal and an airline official came to escort Farooq, his seatmate and their female colleague off the flight, an experience Farooq called "humiliating."

Within moments, the three were surrounded by Denver police, airport security and an official from the Transportation Security Administration. Their dentification was taken from them, they were told not to speak to one another and an FBI agent was consulted via telephone.

Meanwhile, their flight to Winnipeg departed with the passenger who lodged the complaint still on board.

"Within two or three minutes, the guy from the TSA said he thought the airline staff overreacted and that we never should have been pulled from the plane," said Farooq. "He apologized. Once they relaxed, they were polite and professional."

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