Passengers on board a flight were terrified after a man began shouting “Allahu Akbar” at the top of his voice on an Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to Manila.
The Muslim man stood next to the exit door of the aircraft and recited the end of the call to prayer - a task that falls to the appointed muezzin at a mosque – inevitably frightening the passengers.
A man on the flight posted the video to Reddit with the caption, “Asleep on a plane, I was woken to this guy shouting in my face.”
Also posting it to YouTube, the filmer wrote, “I was asleep at the emergency exit and awoke to this. He had to cover his ears he was shouting so loud”.
“Just to be clear, I’ve seen plenty of people pray on flights before but never have I witnessed a call to prayer like this”, he added.
The seven hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Manila on UAE airline Etihad, routinely carries a large number of Muslim passengers.
Screens on-board indicate at all times the direction of Mecca and Muslims praying is not an unusual sight.
The redditor wrote online, “I’ve taken this route many times before and have never seen this before. People pray pretty frequently, but that doesn’t really affect anyone else.”
Other users commented saying, “Have some respect for the people travelling with you. The guy was even sleeping right in front of him.”
Another passenger blames the flight attendants, “I’m seriously confused why the staff did nothing about that,” while another one wrote, “Let the guy finish the first time so it doesn’t escalate, then politely and sternly remind him that yelling anything on a plane is not acceptable.”
One person saw the funny side, “Just yell while he’s yelling while maintaining direct eye contact”.
A spokesperson for Etihad Airways said, “Etihad Airways welcomes guests of all faiths onto our aircraft.”
“There is a dedicated area in the cabin for guests who wish to pray, which was being used by the guest in question. We can appreciate that the volume of this guest’s prayers may have been disturbing to other passengers, during the brief period shown in the video. “
“As a multi-cultural airline which welcomes all faiths, we ask for tolerance and sensitivity from all our guests”, the statement added.
Some took to Twitter as the video made rounds on social media.
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