Yesterday, there was a protest at Reagan Washington National Airport, a "pray-in" held by imams, rabbis, and ministers.
The demonstration was staged to keep the story of the six imams removed from a US Airways Minneapolis to Phoenix flight last Monday alive.
Supposedly, the purpose of the protest was to get US Airways to apologize for being anti-Muslim, discriminatory, and engaging in racial profiling.
Actually, I think the entire episode was a test.
How would passengers and airline personnel react to the weird behavior of the imams?
After charges of profiling were leveled, would US Airways back down?
Would the public side with the imams?
According to the Associated Press:
Imam Omar Shahin, one of the six imams detained last Monday at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said they hadn't done anything suspicious.
The imams, who were returning from a religious conference, had prayed on their prayer rugs in the airport before the flight. After they boarded the flight, a passenger passed a note to a flight attendant. The men were taken off the airplane, handcuffed and questioned.
"It was the worst moment in my life," Shahin said.
I don't buy that. I think it was a highlight for Shanin. I think he got exactly what he wanted -- an opportunity to criticize the U.S. government for profiling and a chance to stir up Muslim rage.
If that incident last Monday was the worst moment Shahin has experienced, then he's had a very charmed life.
I think there's a good chance that Shahin hated being removed from the plane, handcuffed and questioned as much as Cindy Sheehan hates being arrested and led away in handcuffs.US Airways Group Inc. spokeswoman Andrea Rader said prayer was never the issue. She said the passenger overheard anti-U.S. statements and the men got up and moved around the airplane.
"We're sorry the imams had a difficult time, but we do think the crews have to make these calls and we think they made the right one," she said.
The men were behaving suspiciously.
It would have been a grave mistake for US Airways to ignore them.
I sincerely believe that this was a case of entrapment.
These imams WANTED to cry, "Profiling!"
Yesterday's goofy "pray-in" smacks of Cindy Sheehan tactics. Instead of camping out near President Bush's ranch to attract the media, the clergy drew the media by camping out near the US Airways ticket counter in Terminal A.
As the religious of various faiths joined together to protest the alleged dehumanization of the imams and the degrading treatment they endured, more details from witnesses have emerged.
The information makes the protesters look ridiculous.
It makes MSNBC's Contessa "Rosa Parks" Brewer, a former Milwaukee news personality, and CAIR members look like absolute fools.
Watch--Audrey Hudson of The Washington Times has the story:Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials.
Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted "Allah" when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix.
"I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud," the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department.
Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.
"That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane."
A pilot from another airline said: "That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry."
And they claim that all they were doing was praying.
The imams were discriminated against for exercising their religion.
Is switching from their assigned seats on a plane part of their prayer practices? ...Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, called removing the imams an act of Islamophobia and compared it to racism against blacks.
BS.
The imams were acting suspiciously.
It wasn't Islamophobia to have them removed from the plane and questioned.
It was a completely rational and totally appropriate thing to do. ...The protesters also called on Congress to pass legislation to outlaw passenger profiling.
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas Democrat, said the September 11 terrorist attacks "cannot be permitted to be used to justify racial profiling, harassment and discrimination of Muslim and Arab Americans."
"Understandably, the imams felt profiled, humiliated, and discriminated against by their treatment," she said.
I completely disagree with Jackson-Lee.
The 9/11 attacks weren't used as justification to harass the imams.
It would have been negligent on the part of the airline to allow the behavior to pass without investigating further.
Yes, there are "soft on terror" Dems like Russ Feingold who would prefer to aid the terrorists and put American lives at risk rather than question people acting inappropriately.
We can't afford to make that mistake. According to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials, the imams displayed other suspicious behavior.
Three of the men asked for seat-belt extenders, although two flight attendants told police the men were not oversized. One flight attendant told police she "found this unsettling, as crew knew about the six [passengers] on board and where they were sitting." Rather than attach the extensions, the men placed the straps and buckles on the cabin floor, the flight attendant said.
Sure. That happens all the time. Nothing suspicious about that at all.
Who doesn't ask for extenders and then store them on the floor? That's perfectly normal behavior. Right.
I'd like to know how the imams' explained their request for extenders to authorities.The imams said they were not discussing politics and only spoke in English, but witnesses told law enforcement that the men spoke in Arabic and English, criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush, and talking about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
Are all these witnesses conspiring against the six imams?
That's not believable. ...One of the passengers, Omar Shahin, told Newsweek the group did everything it could to avoid suspicion by wearing Western clothes, speaking English and booking seats so they were not together. He said they conducted prayers quietly and separately to avoid attention.
The imams had attended a conference sponsored by the North American Imam Federation in Minneapolis and were returning to Phoenix. Mr. Shahin, who is president of the federation, said on his Web site that none of the passengers made pro-Saddam or anti-American statements.
It sounds like this was a setup, arranged for the media's consumption.
The discrepancies between the imams' stories and those of the witnesses are too dramatic to be explained away as differences in interpretations. The pilot said the airlines are not "secretly prejudiced against any nationality, religion or culture," and that the only target of profiling is passenger behavior.
"There are certain behaviors that raise the bar, and not sitting in your assigned seat raises the bar substantially," the pilot said. "Especially since we know that this behavior has been evident in suspicious probes in the past."
I feel sorry for the crew and passengers of Flight 300.
They are being victimized by these imams. They're being exploited by Muslims with an anti-American government agenda. "Someone at US Airways made a notably good decision," said a second pilot, who also does not work for US Airways.
A spokeswoman for US Airways declined to discuss the incident. Aviation security officials said thousands of Muslims fly every day and conduct prayers in airports in a quiet and private manner without creating incidents.
That's key. Muslims fly all the time without problems.
This was not civil disobedience.
The six imams were not involved in a Rosa Parks moment. To suggest that is an insult to her courage and strong will.
These imams were playing a game, not making a statement.
The men do not have the right to cause a disturbance and disrupt the flight.
They acted like terrorists and so they were treated like terrorists.
I don't see anything wrong with that.
