From the Washington Times:
American Muslims making a religious pilgrimage to Mecca are being encouraged to file civil rights complaints if they feel discriminated against by airlines.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), citing what it called the “airport profiling” of six imams removed from a recent flight, yesterday said Muslims traveling this month to the holy site in Saudi Arabia need to be aware of their rights.
“Given the increase in the number of complaints CAIR has received alleging airport profiling of American Muslims, we believe it is important that all those taking part in this year’s hajj be aware of their legal and civil rights,” said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman.
The group has established a toll-free hot line (800/784-7526) for victims of “flying while Muslim,” as Muslims have begun departing for the weeklong hajj, a once-in-a-lifetime obligation to visit the holy city of Mecca, which this year begins Dec. 29.
But M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix physician and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), said the announcement by CAIR “continues the tired stoking of the flames of victimization.”
. . . .
CAIR is representing the six imams removed from a US Airways flight last month and has asked for a meeting with the airline to seek an out-of-court settlement. It maintains that police and witness reports detailing the imams unusual behavior before their removal last month were ethnically and/or religiously motivated.
The imams say they were praying and did not, as the reports say, change seats and make remarks critical of President Bush and the Iraq war.
Pilots and air marshals called the incident a “PC probe” to intimidate passengers and crew from reporting suspicious behavior by Muslim passengers and are fearful the incident will set off a domino effect of lawsuits.
Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, thinks this is a ploy to extort money from the airlines.
“I think CAIR is soliciting complaints, and if they don’t get it, they will make it up,” said Miss Burlingame, who is also a director for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.
. . . .
The Washington Times obtained police and witness reports just days after the incident involving the imams, and reported on Nov. 28 that the men did not sit in their assigned seats, asked for seat-belt extensions they did not need, and spoke in Arabic among themselves.
Federal air marshals and pilots were also asked by The Washington Times to examine the imams’ seating arrangement, and reported that it resembled a pattern used by the September 11 hijackers.
“That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry,” one pilot said.
One airline official who asked to remain anonymous called the CAIR threats about ethnic profiling “much ado about a practice that does not exist in any major airline.”
“You do wonder what the ultimate aim is here; to eliminate a discriminatory practice that does not exist, or is there some other agenda afoot,” the official said.
I think it’s about time for surveillance cameras on planes.
UPDATE: via Powerline (who don’t need the link) comes Katherine Kersten’s examination of the purpose behind the Flying Imam brouhaha–to gin up support for something called the End Racial Profiling Act, being brought to Congress by a man named Keith Ellison
I’d like to take a page from Dr Spencer over at Jihadwatch and volunteer to escort muslims on the hajj to insure that their “civil rights” are protected.
Excuse me? Infidels are not permitted on the hajj?
OK! I guess that you guys are on your own…
Does anyone here know anyone removed from a flight based on these suspicions?
No, but I know of 19 that should have been removed for similar behaviors.
Not just infidels, BJ. I know of at least one case where an Englishman who had converted to Islam as a teenager and gained a double first in Arabic & Islamic studies at Cambridge was refused permission to study in either Mecca or Medinah, and when he hit on Al Azhar as his 3rd choice he was segregated in the foreigners’ wing so as not to pollute the true faithful.
You can rest secure in the certainty that those of your American muslims who do make it through the gauntlet of your frightful ethnic profilers will be treated like shit when they reach the black rock.
Vive la chasse et mort aux cons!
Yeah, there were these six fuckwits just the other day. You may have read about it.
Just a quick review:
Moving past the whole praying thing (which their lawyer emphasized as the only important issue) we also had the following;
1) When the boarding call was made for 1st class, all six imans came forward, though only one of them had a 1st class boarding ticket.
2) The 6 sat in separate seats throughout the aircraft, matching the actions of the 19.
3) They were speaking loudly in a middle eastern language to each other. A woman on board who understood the language reported that they were loudly condemning America and Bush and repeatedly used the words for “terrorist” and “terrorism.”
4) The guy in first class was talking loudly on his cell phone in that language while he paced the plane from front to back, conferring with the other imans.
5) At least 2 of the imans requested seat belt extenders even though neither of the 2 were heavy enough to need them and they both placed the extenders on the floor under the seat.
I’m sure that I’ve missed one or two other nuggets of infromation that were drowned out by the civil rights wailing of the “holy” men.
If you have a better plan for airline security, actus, I’d be interested in hearing it.
Let’s be honest and move on. If six men of ANY ethnicity, colour, religion, size, inclination or creed had behaved like that they would have been arrested and removed from the aircraft.
That was their intention, they achieved their aim, and they should now be prosecuted under whatever law you have over there that stands in for our conduct liable or intended to cause a breach of the peace.
Muslims being encouraged to complain? How novel.
I believe that it was SF writer Jerry Pournelle who suggested in an essay a long time ago that a way to reduce potential hijackings would be to allow every U.S. Military officer and every sworn law enforcement officer to openly carry a sidearm when flying on a commercial airliner. It probably wouldn’t work—I can envision a lot of explosively decompressed cabins—but on the other hand, it would certainly have a calming effect on potentially unruly passengers.
They’d be required to load their guns with ammo that can’t penetrate cabin bulkheads. I may be mistaken but I think I read somewhere that air marshals already are thus required.
I’d imagine that a few rounds of rubber bullets at close range would put a serious kink in your jihad.
Overpenetration into bystanders is the major concern, not hitting the airframe. I don’t know exactly what ammo the air marshals use but I suspect it’s hollowpoints or some form of frangible/pre-fragmented projectile (sintered metal or pellets in epoxy.)
Pistol caliber bullet holes do not result in explosive decompression of the craft. If the damage is limited to a few holes the cabin pressurization system will likely be able to maintain cabin pressure. At least that’s what the Mythbusters found out…
How long before a group of muslims decide to ‘avoid discrimination’ by attempting to charter a commercial airliner?
If they stick to the pre-filed flight plan, more power to them.
ThomasD: LOL, I saw that Mytthbuster’s episode on explosive decompression. Loved it when their demo guy decided to rig a big charge.
Explosions! Love ‘em!
The last time I checked CAIR and their minions in Congress were trying to have culture specific security criteria (OK, profiling!) excluded from future airport screenings. Right now, racial and cultural profiling is part and parcel of behavioral profiling. It appears that the imans fit the behavioral profile which includes (but is not limited to) cultural and religious related actions in addition to general attitude, eye contact, facial expressions, overall body language, level of cooperation and a hundred other factors.
Again I ask, how does CAIR and their Congresslamists expect the security plan to work?
Agreed, as long as they also pony up the money required to pay for an armed military escort.
Common sense also says the plane’s owners should be free to require some sort of surety bond.
As far as the proposed legislation goes, it’s fine with me as long as every provision is equally applied to Congesscritters and their security detail. I mean, a group of young bald white guys in Doc Martens asking for an immediate audience shouldn’t be a cause for concern to Representative Ellison.
I thought they just went to their assigned seats without prayer. Oh well. But they were brown. Like my acquaintance. All 5’2’’ of her. She got taken off the flight. But lucky for her, it was delayed for other reasons, so she got back on. And got to see the look on the face of the bigot that complained and tried to get her kicked off.
So, you still think the only thing the imams did wrong was praying?
If not, you can ask actor James Woods about the behavior of the 9/11 hijackers on a practice run.
I’m a god-hating secular lib, so I usually think that prayer is wrong. But it seems like on the trial run, there was an attempt to keep the noise down, no eating, no sleeping. Which is not like the imams.
I thought they just went to their assigned seats without prayer. Oh well. But they were brown. Like my acquaintance. All 5’2’’ of her. She got taken off the flight. But lucky for her, it was delayed for other reasons, so she got back on. And got to see the look on the face of the bigot that complained and tried to get her kicked off.
Either an air marshal or the captain. The only ones onboard with the authority to get anyone kicked off.Here’s a hint I used to give my more youthful employees. If you don’t want to get treated like a gang member, don’t act like a gang memeber.
Right. There’s the guy that complained, which causes the captain to kick someone off. Captains hate NOT flying while things are resolved. They became pilots to fly, and don’t really like to wait.
She was dressed like a lawyer and sending a text message. And she was doing it quietly. While brown. But thanks for your words of wisdom.
Actus, let me be blunt.
So what? If the purpose of your “first person” story is to well my eyes up for your friend, then take it someplace else. There will continue to be instances where people of a particular ethnicity displaying some behavior that rattled somebody will be inconvenienced or even mildly traumatized by an unfair deboard. Life is not always fair and we err on the side of safety. As we go along, we get better at this.
I asked you above for your alternative security suggestions but all that you had to offer was your sob story. Unless you are willing to offer a logical and safe alternative then I guess we will continue to occasionally inconvenience a few people. Feel free to have them take it up with bin laden and I’ll be sure to send you a box of kleenex.
Thank you for presenting the tiresome liberal/progressive mantra that focuses on the one story of misery while dismissing the entire security effort. Please feel free to review the comment above that I wrote listing the behaviors of the imans if you have any other questions.
Oh. She was quite matter of factly about it. Its just that not every brown person kicked off a plane is like our beloved Imams. Not everyone of them gets the satisfaction of watching the bigot’s jaw drop.
How about a voucher for those who are innocent, paid for by a tax on everyone’s ticket? That way, we all are safe, and we all pay the price. Rather than only a certain skin color paying the price when a bigot freaks out over their use of a text message. I mean, that is the logic right? that we are doing this for the safety of all. So lets all pitch in and share in the inconvenience.