Our Wanker this Week is an American blogger with the rather risible name of Debbie Schlussel. Based on the number of other sites that link to it, she claims that her blog is number 325 in the world - although she may not have realised that the purpose of all those links is mockery rather than admiration.
This week she carried this story …
Cargo Apartheid: UK Muslim Airport Porters Refuse to Handle Israeli Luggage
By Debbie Schlussel
This outrageous story from e-mailer Beryl Dean has been verified and is absolutely true:
My friend Miriam Bedein traveled to Britain early in April. She arrived on British Air from Israel, and as she arrived at the baggage claim, she observed that there were no porters at the site.
She asked what was happening of the gentleman who was taking her to the baggage carousel, and he said "Ooh, the porters are Muslim and they will not handle any luggage coming from Israel" (In Britain, the porters take the luggage off the carousels and take them to your cab, etc.) While it was not his job, the gentleman was kind enough to get her luggage for her.
She is writing British Air about this incident, asking why they tolerate, and what they are doing about, this unacceptable situation.
Perhaps you also will write to British Air. And to Heathrow Airport. EL-AL probably gets the same treatment. Write to them as well.
**** UPDATE, 04/18/08: I looked into this some more and just got off the phone with Miriam Bedein's friend, lawyer Beryl Dean. It's absolutely correct. They don't call them "porters" in Britain, they call them "skycaps," and they are pre-arranged, not waiting around the luggage carousel. Moreover, Miriam Bedein is in a wheelchair, and it was pre-arranged that a skycap come to wheel her from the plane to the luggage and then to help port her luggage. However, they refused to show up because her flight and luggage were from Israel. And that IS the policy of Brit Muslim skycaps.
A few of her visitors timorously pointed out that the story is obviously ludicrous. There is no airline called British Air, for a start, and there are no porters at Heathrow. One wrote "This story is very hard to believe. I have flown into Heathrow many times, from the USA, Czech Republic and Germany on various airlines, and never seen any porters removing bags from the carousels, Muslim or otherwise," and another said "I go through Heathrow three or four times a year. There are no porters in the baggage claim area because they are not permitted there since passengers still must go through customs. By the time everyone exits customs, all passengers from all airlines arriving at the same time are together so no one knows which airline a passenger was on or what country the passenger is from."
But Debbie Schlussel is not one to brook any dissent. She answers them with block capitals and magnificent aggression: "ACTUALLY, YOU ARE WRONG. SO SAD THAT YOU FOUND THE NEED TO BE RUDE AND ATTACK AMERICA IN YOUR RESPONSE. IT ONLY HIGHLIGHTED HOW IGNORANT YOU ARE", and "YOU ARE IGNORANT OF THE CUSTOMS AT HEATHROW, DESPITE YOUR DESIRE TO PROPAGANDIZE FOR ISLAM. I'VE VERIFIED THAT IT IS, INDEED, TRUE. EASY TO MAKE SPECIOUS, SWEEPING STATEMENTS. BUT YOU DIDN'T BACK IT UP WITH ANYTHING CONCRETE."
(We checked, too: the only assistance with luggage that's available to travellers landing at Heathrow is provided by a private firm called Interserve Aviation Services, who say "Skycaps is our customer-facing passenger services division, focused on all aspects of the travelling experience, from passenger services including valet parking and secure parking, chauffeuring, portering, meet and greet, specialist needs, airport lounge service, VIP service, in transit facilities and group travel. We operate the Skycaps service at Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Cardiff." You have to ask, and pay, for their services, though not necessarily in advance. You have to wonder who the Israeli lady's kind friend was - was he in fact a Skycap representative she had booked in advance, in which case he was spinning her a line? Or was he just another passenger being a Good Samaritan - and spinning her a line at the same time? Or was he a chancer on the make, hoping for an opportunity to make off with her luggage?)
But Debbie doesn't stop there in her fight to blacken the image of Britain (bloody cheek. That's our job).
She recounts the following story:
A man, known only as David T, and his 10-year-old son were stopped from going into the pool at Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington, east London.
(OK so far, except that there's no secret the man's name was David Toube, and according to the Daily Telegraph his son is five years old, not ten.)
Last night embarrassed management at the complex said staff were wrong to turn customers away from the designated 'men-only modesty session' on Sunday morning. The council says the special early-morning get-togethers are aimed at community groups who have strict rules on segregation.
But the dad and his lad were prevented from swimming when they turned up at 9am on Sunday. David T said: "I arrived at the pool to discover that they were holding what staff described to me as 'Muslim men-only swimming'. I asked whether my son and I could go as we were both male. I was told that the session was for Muslims only and that we could not be admitted. I asked to speak to the duty manager, who confirmed that this was the case."
The men-only modesty swimming sessions take place every Sunday from 8am to 9.30am. Two websites have been advertising the sessions for Muslim men only.
But a leisure centre spokesman said staff were out of order to refuse people entry for being non-Muslim. He said: "The member of staff the user spoke with at the time was mistaken when referring to the session as Muslim only. [DS: Mark my word. There was NO mistake. This is policy.] . . .
A spokesman for Hackney Council said: "None of Hackney's leisure centres have religiously segregated swimming sessions in their public timetables. [DS: Uh-huh.]
This incident was reported in the British press, and almost certainly did happen. It was also certainly an error on the part of the swimming pool staff - a pretty stupid one, in fact. But Schlussel is lying when she says "two websites have been advertising the sessions for Muslim men only" - we've checked, and the Clissold Centre website describes sessions as simply "men" or "women". She is also lying when she says "There was NO mistake. This is policy" - but hey, what the hell? If you say something loudly enough, sooner or later someone'll believe you.
But apart from the cheek of the woman who thinks she can sit safely on the other side of the Atlantic and write deeply-slanted and malicious stories about a country that is, frankly, none of her damn business, the thing that really sticks in one's craw is the style and content of the comments from her readership. I quote …
"Who would want to swim with Muslime swine anyway. You swim with swine, you come out smelling like a pig."
"They really should start shipping stone by stone, brick by brick all those neat old buildings in England and reassemble them on The Strip in Las Vegas. This is what England used to look like. They can keep Westminster Abbey and turn it into a mosk."
"I wouldn't want to swim with those filthy animals anyway. There isn't enough chlorine in the world to kill all the germs and fleas that those disgusting vermin have on them. I understand that when their ugly females get into the pool they keep their bee keeper outfit on, filthy as hell too."
Well done, Debbie Schlussel, for giving these people an opportunity for intelligent debate. We really need to be told how to run our country by rejects from the most ignorant, uncultured, provincial, belligerent nation on earth, the nation of Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, the Grassy Knoll, Waco and the Westboro Baptist Church. I expect you're proud.
Wanker.
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
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