Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary came under criticism on Saturday for suggesting in an interview that Muslim men should be singled out for extra scrutiny at airports.
The boss of the Irish budget carrier told Saturday’s Times of London that security checks for families with young children should be less stringent at airports because there was “zero” chance of them being bombers. He said terrorists "will generally be males of a Muslim persuasion."
“Thirty years ago it was the Irish,” he said. “If that is where the threat is coming from, deal with the threat."
The Muslim Council of Britain called the comments “racist and discriminatory.”
Tell Mama, a charity that monitors hate incidents against Muslims, said O’Leary’s “flippant” comments could harm Ryanair’s business.
Labor Party lawmaker Khalid Mahmood said O’Leary was “being very blinkered and is actually encouraging racism."
"In Germany this week a white person killed eight people. Should we profile white people to see if they're being fascists?" the Times cited Mahmood as saying.
O’Leary has a history of provocative remarks that keep Ryanair’s name in the headlines.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Times, O’Leary branded most airport security “utterly useless,” complained that airlines unfairly got the blame for climate change, and said requirements that Ryanair’s Dublin offices have disabled access to all floors were “nonsense.”
He once called for a fat-tax on overweight passengers.
