A Muslim man who was performing a call to prayer right inside an aircraft left passengers terrified when he began to yell at the top of his voice. The passengers became terrified after the man began shouting 'Allahu Akbar' at the top of his voice on the plane.
A mobile phone footage has been uploaded online of the man in traditional Islamic dress shouting the Arabic phrase...but he's actually just praying.
Terrified passengers on an American Airlines flight watch as the Muslim man stands next to the exit door yelling in Arabic.
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.'
The video was filmed two years ago but has recently resurfaced online
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.'
The man is in fact performing the end of the call to prayer - a task that falls to the appointed 'muezzin' at a mosque.
It is thought he is saying: 'Hasten to real success, Hasten to real success, Allah is Great, Allah is Great. There is no divinity but Allah'
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 have been less fair: 'Terrifying? It's f**king annoying that's what it is,' one writes. 'Have some respect for the people travelling with you. The guy was even sleeping right in front of that asshole.'
Another blames the flight attendants: 'I'm seriously confused why the staff did nothing about that,' 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 sees the funny side: 'Just yell while he's yelling while maintaining direct eye contact'.
A spokesperson for Etihad Airways said: 'The video in question appears to be from June 2014. 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 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.'
In 2012, the Economist explored the issue of Islamic prayer on airplanes, noting that Muslims, who pray five times a day at specific times, often need to do so while on long flights.
However new apps and technologies are working towards making in-flight prayer more seamless.
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