As unreasonable as it sounds, this is one of the effects of the paradigm shift in the operations of airline transportation that occurred after 9/11. I am not trying to defend actions motivated and defined by cultural discrimination. However, the impact of 9/11 and subsequent handling by various governments, by the media, and more internally by various sub-cultural and micro-cultural groups means that sometimes someone is going to have an adverse reaction to something they perceive as a potential threat, regardless of how reasonable that perception is to anyone else. And because of those reactions, there will be the occasional disruption in the normal flow of things. Regrettable? Yes. But, not so much so that incredibly infrequent events like this should cause anyone to lose sleep. This is news not because it is a commonplace issue, but because it could be hyped in such a way that the news media could hook readers and sell advertising. Simple as that.
As for how the flight was handled, what else could have been done on the part of the airline company and, more importantly, the crew of that specific flight given the circumstances? If they had refused to allow the agitated individual to de-plane, what would have happened if that had become hysterical in-flight? If you have a passenger who is severely agitated and you haven't taken off already, then it might be the prudent, even if expensive and inconvenient, thing to do to turn around and drop them off. Let the law and regulatory agencies determine if that passenger was at fault or in the right. The crew, however, should always have their focus on the immediate safety of the passengers and the aircraft. If I were the crew, I would not want to take off with a passenger that I suspected may later panic and do something dangerous to themselves or others.
As for how the media is portraying this, you must realize that they make money by inflating and hyping the story and by agitating you, the reader. I would say, sadly, it has worked. One individual having distress is not a systemic or institutionalized act of discrimination against the Arabic-speaking individuals on that flight. That is not to say that there weren't individuals who were discriminatory on the plane that evening, but I see the actions of the crew and the airline as safety-related (as mentioned above). But, if the news just reported that a plane was forced to stay grounded overnight because a distressed passenger caused a safety issue preventing the plane from leaving before the airport curfew, well, that doesn't sell, now, does it? So, now we have a story about discrimination and interracial tension and terrorism and global politics and the end of the world and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! That sells.
Yet, while we are successfully riled up and hooked into the story, we haven't been provided really useful information, have? What was said? Did the de-planing passenger have a psychological history which would explain their actions? What is the airline's policy for handling agitated passengers? What was the demeanor of the flight crew towards the passengers? So on and so forth. We don't really know the details, we just know the hype.
Without going further, I would say this is yet another great example of why I am glad SimV tries to remain apolitical. Reasoned dialogue between people about these issues would be great, but too often things just go somewhere bad. I am guilty of buying into the hype myself more times than I want to admit. So, don't take all this too harshly; this is not a condemnation of anyone, just a bit cynical observation on human nature, including my own (thank you, SimV, for protecting me from myself! ;)). I am not against discussion, but sometimes the speaking without thinking that politics and the like inspire really trouble me. I wish there was a better way that was the norm.
As for that flight, those passengers, and the crew, I just hope everyone got to where they were going
safely.
Rant over. Shutting up and going back to flying now. Sorry.

~Darrin