Imagine arriving at Montego Bay airport, checking your bags, collecting your boarding pass and then going through security, only to be stopped and searched like a criminal because you forgot to take your water bottle out of your bag.  Snore, snore……it’s happened to most of us.  They have to make sure none of us are drug mules!

Okay, so now imagine continuing on through the airport and just before walking the gangway, where the officials check boarding passes, you are stopped again.  Your carry-on bag is too big and must be checked.  Snore, snore, again……always happens to Jamaicans, right?  We have plenty spice bun, patties and banana chips to carry to our foreign relatives!

Now imagine this game changer:  you are asked if you are a Jamaican.  You are, so you say “Yes,” but then you ask, “Why?”

Well, imagine an answer like this:  “A passenger just came to me and asked why you were stopped by the security, if you’re Muslim and if we’re going to allow you on the plane.”

Bam!

This did actually happen.  It happened to a young friend of mine who is in her twenties.  As you can well imagine, she was shocked and horrified, as am I, frankly.

Firstly, she is not Muslim, nor does she fit the profile of how someone who is Muslim looks.  That said, anyone can be Muslim – after all, it’s a religion, not a race.  What would have been the ‘safe’ way to look?  Blond haired and blue eyed?  That stinks of Nazism.

Secondly, even if she were Muslim, did the passenger who made the idiotic remark really believe that she should not be allowed on the plane?  Ergo, anyone of Muslim faith should not be allowed to fly on any aeroplane?  “Attention all potential passengers.  Unless you are blond with blue eyes, you will not be allowed to board the plane.”  Where was this idiotic passenger from, anyway?  America?  It was a flight headed for South Carolina.  And from where could this mentality stem?  Trump springs to mind.  Let’s face it, fellows, the man has a whole heap of supporters.  I don’t honestly think he will ever win the Presidential Election in November, but he still has millions of people who endorse his idiotic ideals.  This idiotic passenger must be one of them.  I know that I keep using this word – idiotic – but you find me a better description!