Happy New Year - if you are not Muslim and on AirTran Airlines

It's really a shame that the new year has just started and already the ugly face of prejudice has shown itself. In fact it popped up on New Year's Day. Couldn't we get past the first day without an issue? Obviously not.

The whole event happened in Washington D.C. The problem was that someone thought that people dressed in Muslim garb can't speak about airplane safety without something blowing up. Which is really sad.

On the AirTran Flight 175, part of a group of nine passengers were overheard discussing where was the best place to sit on a plane to be safe. In general this is not common, but not unusual either. Many first time flyers, and those with fears of flying, can be heard discussing such things on any flight in the nation on any day. But when that person looks different, well then the whole thing goes to shit.

The airline stewardess was notified of the terrifying comments. Which meant that all the passengers and luggage had to be re-scanned by security. Then the 9 passengers, who happened to be Muslim - and Americans - were interviewed by airport security and the FBI. Everyone was cleared.

Now if the news story ended there, this would be a sad example of small minds seeing 9/11 in every plane. But it would be the end of it and not such a big deal. Except it did not end there. AirTran made it far worse.

The 9 Muslim passengers, who were cleared by security, were refused passage. Not only were they unable to fly on Flight 175, they were told they could not fly on AirTran at all.

AirTran officially said

"We apologize to all of the passengers -- to the nine who had to undergo extensive interviews from the authorities, and to the 95 who ultimately made the flight," the discount airline said in a statement.

"While ultimately this issue proved to be a misunderstanding, the steps taken were necessary," it said.

Later the airline came up with this response

"We apologize to all of the passengers — to the nine who had to undergo extensive interviews from the authorities and to the 95 who ultimately made the flight," the statement said. "Nobody on Flight 175 reached their destination on time on New Year's Day, and we regret it."

Notice the difference in the 2 statements. The airline moved quickly to drop that they felt necessary steps were taken. Instead they mentioned how everybody was late to their destination. Hiding the fact that the 9 Muslim Americans were not only late, they were barred from the airline and had to buy new tickets with US Airways. That's more than a simple or extended delay.

Now I understand that someone is so terrified of a person in Muslim garb that they hang on every action that person takes. Stupid but I understand it. And I can understand they listened to every word that was said, searching for a problem. I understand that the FBI and airport security questioned those that made the comments, which were proven to be nothing.

But I do not understand why the airline refused innocent Americans passage that they had paid for.

AirTran knows they were in the wrong. They have now stepped up and mentioned how they will reimburse the families for the cost of the tickets they had to buy, and offered them a free flight home. It's PR in swift action to cover the prejudice that was shown by the company. In effect they want to cover slapping their faces by giving them a lollipop and hopes no one will notice.

I do not like, nor will I abide, a company that blatantly discriminates against anyone. If the word of the FBI is not good enough for AirTran, what the hell is? If they are so particular about who buys tickets and rides their airplanes, I do not need to provide them with my hard earned money. Because I'm Black Puerto Rican and speak a couple of languages. Watch out if I get an overseas call and speak in any language other than english before I board one of their flights.

The whole thing is insulting to me. The passengers involved are taking it well, and accepted the apology - though so far not the free trip home. But I am further insulted by the PR setup that AirTran is attempting to create to obfuscate their discrimination.

I suggest to you my readers, not to use AirTran Airlines. Money seems to be the only thing they care about more than discriminating against Americans. So money is the best way to make it clear that no American, or any passenger, should be treated in this manner.