I Think I Figured Out The Motivation Behind YouTube Scamster Adam Saleh's Plane Antics
And I don't just mean "getting attention." That seems pretty obvious.
First, I'm from Detroit, and my boyfriend is also from Detroit but, like me, lives in LA, where we met. Well, for years, he flew back and forth to Detroit about every week and a half to two weeks for his job as the late crime writer Elmore Leonard's literary researcher. Flew back and forth on Delta -- which was Northwest until it morphed into Delta.
Let me also explain something about Detroit. It's both a major Delta hub and a major Islamic hub, with, for example, a big Muslim community in Dearborn, not far from the airport.
I have been on a number of Delta flights on which I've heard other passengers speaking Arabic, and I've even seen people praying on prayer rugs at Detroit Metro Airport. Nothing happened to any of them -- because they weren't yelling and being disruptive assholes. Which is what seems to have happened on this flight.
And really -- think about what a terrible business model this would be: operating out of a hub with a good many Muslim travelers and escorting people off planes simply for speaking Arabic. If this actually were a common practice at Delta, we would have known about it.
But it seems this Adam Saleh incident was something else entirely, and I have a pretty good idea -- I think -- of what the motivation was.
I read a story at The Wrap by Beatrice Verhoeven that had a quote from what somebody thought Adam Saleh and his friend were saying:
"The YouTube guy was trying to get his friend to shout something in Arabic which he did a total of 4 times," he posted, adding that neither Saleh nor Albaher was on a phone call. "A couple of passengers after the second time said they were making themselves and their young children uncomfortable and could they shut up."Another passenger who identified his seat and row on the plane wrote on Facebook that another passenger stated "she saw this man pump his fists in the air and say something in another language. She knows it was not 'allahu akbar' and that he was doing in a joking manner ... She got so agitated that a crew member had to ask her to calm down. After she saw him to [sic] this the 2nd time she called a flight attendant."
The passenger also claimed that another traveler "heard someone saying 'um del lum lakum.' He heard this a few times and he stated that 'the guy was shouting it so I had to turn around and see what it was about.' 'I could tell that his friend was telling him what to say and he would repeat it. He told him how to say it and say it louder and he was pumping his fists in the air.'"
Those accounts were corroborated secondhand by still another Facebook user, who posted that his boyfriend, seated "directly in front of them," reported that "the entire thing was planned. [Saleh] wasn't on the phone with his mom speaking Arabic. He and his friends were shouting in Arabic with their fists balled up in the air. They were removed from the plane for being loud and disruptive, then started filming claiming they were victims. These guys aren't victims, they are social media whores."
The history:
The YouTube star has a history of posting prank videos that are designed to look real. In October, it was revealed that his viral video of a NYPD officer stopping and frisking a pair of Muslim men for wearing Islamic garments was a hoax. And last week, Saleh was called out for posting a fake video in which he allegedly sneaked onto a flight in a suitcase.In a follow-up statement regarding the event on Wednesday afternoon, Delta said Saleh "sought to disrupt the cabin with provocative behavior, including shouting" after taking multiple eyewitness statements upon landing.
The company continued: "This type of conduct is not welcome on any Delta flight."
The comment I left at The Wrap:
They were probably yelling "Asa lama lakum" ("peace be onto you" in Arabic) in order to make an ironic video. They had no right to yell on an aircraft or to turn a captive group of people into fodder for their video. The airline was right to throw them off.PS I am from Detroit, and have flown Delta countless times over the past 10 years (it was Northwest at some point, not sure when). Detroit is a major hub for Delta and home to a big Muslim community. I have seen Muslims praying on rugs before flights several times and have heard Arabic spoken on Delta planes on perhaps six or seven flights I've been on. Nobody got thrown off any of these flights or refused boarding because none of them yelled or videotaped other passengers. They were just going about their lives like the rest of us.
They also had no right to tape other passengers and make them video fodder. The people on a plane are a captive audience (or captive fodder).
This is likewise why it was unfair for the guy to confront Ivanka Trump. I'm all for people expressing their political opinions, but the place to do that is Twitter, picketing an auditorium where she's giving a talk, posting blog items, or writing op-eds.
It is not chastising her in a small space where neither she nor anyone else can escape.
Oh, and back to the Saleh incident, Delta, good for you for jacking this guy off the flight and not backing down.
Based on the events of the past weeks, my default position these days is that any claim of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab biased behavior is a hoax. 'Hoax' is now the most-likely scenario.
llater,
llamas
llamas at December 23, 2016 4:57 AM
I would never advise anyone to harass a billionaire's grandchildren.
AFA this airplane incident everything was done correctly. People spoke up and the employees responded politely and firmly. Too bad some legal action can not be pursued.
Bob in Texas at December 23, 2016 6:10 AM
Constantly, constantly, the claims of attacks on Muslims are turning out to be hoaxes.
"Hate Crime" Or Hoax Crime? was how I put it in a post I didn't get around to finishing.
As I put it in the lead to it:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/12/police-muslim-student-at-u-of-michigan-lied-in-claiming-man-threatened-to-light-her-on-fire-unless-she-removed-hijab
Amy Alkon at December 23, 2016 6:17 AM
Building on the hoax report linked by our gracious hostess, be it remembered that YHS is not exactly unfamiliar with Ann Arbor, where the alleged attack took place. I didn't believe that one for an Ann Arbor minute - hijab is completely unremarkable, certainly in the center of town and in all areas in around the various campus centers. It's not quite Dearborn, but one sees plenty of hijabs. Many of them are worn by AA females.
In fact, knowing AA as I do, I would love to see a guerilla film-maker like O'Keefe come to AA and send some people out and about downtown in a) hijab and b) Trump headgear. I would take a small-to-medium-sized wager that the Trump hat would attract more responses, and more threats, sooner, than the hijab. Let's say a growler of your choice from AA Brewing Co.
llater,
llamas
llamas at December 23, 2016 7:02 AM
I hope the libs never figure out that hectoring people in public and in private over their personal views, relatives, or who they associate with, is a big part of how they lost this last election.
What is with these people that they could ever think this sort of public haranguing would do anything for their cause?
Tacky, rude, and counterproductive, Who raises children to be adults like this?
Isab at December 23, 2016 7:12 AM
Who's YHS?
PS On an Ann Arbor note, I love Zingerman's.
Ann Arbor used to be a hotbed of free speech. When I was at U of M, anyway, back before Alice Lloyd (dorm) was turned into a luxury hotel and spa for students who live there.
Amy Alkon at December 23, 2016 7:56 AM
The jerks are noisily ensuring Trump's second term, one repugnant antic at a time. Do they not understand that normal people loathe this sort of behavior?
MarkD at December 23, 2016 9:06 AM
YHS = Your Humble Servant. My office is in the AA suburbs, on the South Side.
You would not like Zingermans anymore. Hipster paradise. Filled with insufferable, self-absorbed dicks with man-buns and fair-trade organic sandals, doing acro-yoga on the sidewalks and blathering on about how they could do that better with a Raspberry Pi. I always make the Ducati bark on the over-run when I go by, it pisses them off beautifully.
What you used to love about Zingermans is now found at Crust, in Fenton.
llater,
llamas
llamas at December 23, 2016 9:32 AM
Some people are convinced that Americans are racist reactionary xenophobes, and will go to any lengths to prove it.
Conan the Grammarian at December 23, 2016 10:17 AM
Isab: "Tacky, rude, and counterproductive, Who raises children to be adults like this?"
Is that a rhetorical question?
If not, then the answer is colleges. Not all, of course. But, many college professors don't seem to understand any more that one can have meaningful and productive debates without "trashing" the other person.
That the passenger who verbally assaulted Ivanka Trump is (soon to be "was"?) a Hunter College professor did not surprise me.
Also, it was a college professor who, at a Columbia University anti-war rally, called for the death of US servicemen. Those very servicemen who defend his freedom to talk trash and whose sons and daughters attend the school he teaches at.
I think a big part of the problem is that when you disagree with someone on the left they take it as a personal attack. The reason is because they define their very existence by the political view of the world. Therefore, a disagreement with them is seem, by them, as an attack on their very existence; and they respond personally.
charles at December 23, 2016 12:57 PM
When did it become "okay" to assault people attending political rallies, verbally threaten people in a small space (or open one but in a small space there is no retreat), and call for the death of other human beings?
I know that Lefties, SJWs, and a small percentage of Democratic voters do this stuff but why do the police not arrest deese guys. You know we break a law every day, some law, w/o even realizing it. Your yelling at my wife/children in an airplane aisle kicks in an automatic WTF response pretty quick.
It was nicer in the '60's when many truly hated blacks/gays/long hairs/hippies. Too many were recent tunnel rats to push things too hard. But boy could we eye-ball 'em.
Bob in Texas at December 23, 2016 4:29 PM
@Amy: speaking of Islamic hate-hoaxes:
The “Never Trump” Left: Making America Hate Again
mpetrie98 at December 23, 2016 7:35 PM
"Some people are convinced that Americans are racist reactionary xenophobes, and will go to any lengths to prove it."
Here's one now. Sadly, he was an opener for Trump during the campaign, and the media is trying desperately to make his stupidity Trump's fault.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/23/politics/carl-paladino-mad-cow-obamas/index.html
"I'd like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla," Paladino said [about Michelle Obama]".
He also details his fantasy of President Obama dying after having sex with a cow.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at December 24, 2016 9:45 AM
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