6 imams

Last update March 16, 2007

On December 6, 2006, the Wall Street Journal published On a Wing and a Prayer by Debra Burlingame. In essense, it was her response to the 6 imams who, just before Thanksgiving, disrupted U.S. Airways Flight 300. In part, it read:

In five years since the 9/11 attacks, U.S. commercial carriers have transported approximately 2.9 billion domestic and international passengers. It is a testament to the flying public, but, most of all, to the flight crews who put those planes into the air and who daily devote themselves to the safety and well-being of their passengers, that they have refused to succumb to ethnic hatred, religious intolerance or irrational fear on those millions of flights. But they have not forgotten the sight of a 200,000-pound aircraft slicing through heavy steel and concrete as easily as a knife through butter. They still remember the voices of men and women in the prime of their lives saying final goodbyes, people who just moments earlier set down their coffee and looked out the window to a beautiful new morning. Today, when travelers and flight crews arrive at the airport, all the overheated rhetoric of the civil rights absolutists, all the empty claims of government career bureaucrats, all the disingenuous promises of the election-focused politicians just fall away. They have families. They have responsibilities. To them, this is not a game or a cause. This is real life.

Given that Islamic terrorists continue their obsession with turning airplanes into weapons of mass destruction, it is nothing short of obscene that these six religious leaders — fresh from attending a conference of the North American Imams Federation, featuring discussions on “Imams and Politics” and “Imams and the Media” — chose to turn that airport into a stage and that airplane into a prop in the service of their need for grievance theater. The reality is, these passengers endured a frightening 3 1/2-hour ordeal, which included a front-to-back sweep of the aircraft with a bomb-sniffing dog, in order to advance the provocative agenda of these imams in, of all the inappropriate places after 9/11, U.S. airports.

“Allahu Akbar” was just the opening act. After boarding, they did not take their assigned seats but dispersed to seats in the first row of first class, in the midcabin exit rows and in the rear — the exact configuration of the 9/11 execution teams. The head of the group, seated closest to the cockpit, and two others asked for a seatbelt extension, kept on board for obese people. A heavy metal buckle at the end of a long strap, it can easily be used as a lethal weapon. The three men rolled them up and placed them on the floor under their seats. And lest this entire incident be written off as simple cultural ignorance, a frightened Arabic-speaking passenger pulled aside a crew member and translated the imams’ suspicious conversations, which included angry denunciations of Americans, furious grumblings about U.S. foreign policy, Osama Bin Laden and “killing Saddam.”

Two days before her op-ed appeared, Pajamas Media reported that, “…new information is emerging that suggests it was all a stunt designed to weaken security.”

Debra followed up by appearing on Fox & Friends on December 12, 2006, and spoke of hearing from plenty of Muslims who were shocked by what the 6 imams did:

Debra Burlingame on Fox and Friends 12122006

She also spoke with syndicated talk-radio host Mark Levin about the 6 imams’ greviance theatre.

Click here for the contact information she mentioned during that interview.

Katherine Kersten, who has closely followed this story from the beginning, of the Minneapolis-St Paul Star-Tribune, added this news and commentary:

One piece of legislation in the works is the End Racial Profiling Act. It is an important priority of Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, whose district includes one of the largest Muslim populations in the country. Conyers introduced the bill in 2004 and 2005, but it went nowhere. Now the alignment of forces may be changing. Conyers will probably be chairman of the House Judiciary Committee when the new Democratic-controlled Congress convenes next month.

Nancy Pelosi, who called herself a “proud” cosponsor of the Profiling Act in 2004, is the incoming House speaker. And in January, Ellison, who represents the district where the imams incident occurred, will take his seat in Congress.

The act, although it doesn’t as yet impose large penalties, would bar any federal, state or local law enforcement agency from “relying, to any degree, on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion in selecting which individuals to subject to routine or spontaneous investigatory activities.” That would include questioning, searches and seizures.

One of the act’s central features is its definition of illegal profiling. Under it, if airport security personnel question passengers who are disproportionately Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent, this alone would constitute a presumptive violation of the law. Law enforcement agencies would bear the burden of proving that discrimination was not the cause.

What would the effect of such a law be?

“A law that would compel security professionals to focus on keeping their statistics within certain norms rather than on their mission keeping airline travel safe would have a devastating effect on our ability to ensure airline safety,” said Daniel Horan of the Los Angeles Police Department in an interview. He worked at the Los Angeles airport on profiling-related issues for 6 years.

On good friends, the editorial cartoonists at Cox & Forkum, soon weighed in:

Flying while Islamist (click on image)

Flying while Islamist

Oh, by the way, did you read this morning’s headline (March 12, 2007): CAIR OK’d to meet in Capitol?

A House Democrat has arranged for a conference room in the Capitol building to be used tomorrow by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group criticized for its persistent refusal to disavow terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The District-based group also is singled out by other Democratic lawmakers and some law-enforcement officials because of financial ties to terrorists.

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., New Jersey Democrat, reserved the basement conference room for CAIR’s panel discussion Tuesday titled “Global Attitudes on Islam-West Relations: U.S. Policy Implications.” “We just see it as a simple room request,” Pascrell spokesman Caley Gray said. “We did receive a room request and evaluated it and approved it.”

One can only imagine the media attention this event will get.

We needed to imagine a little larger for we are about to view the 6 imams’ second act, with CAIR directing, and with Congressman Pascrell as the show’s executive producer:

IMAMS TO ANNOUNCE FILING OF BIAS SUIT AGAINST US AIRWAYS

Muslim leaders say removal from MN flight based on race, religion

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/12/07) – On Tuesday, March 13, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., to announce the filing of a discrimination lawsuit against US Airways by six imams, or Islamic religious leaders, removed from a flight in Minneapolis last November. The imams say their removal from the flight was based on racism and religious intolerance.

The filing of the lawsuit will be announced by the imams’ attorney. Three of the imams are scheduled to attend CAIR’s news conference and read a prepared statement.

WHAT: Imams to Announce Filing of Bias Suit Against US Airways
WHEN: 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, March 13, 2007
WHERE: CAIR’s Capitol Hill Headquarters, 453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C.
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper

I would venture that CAIR and these 6 imams are adding to “flying while Muslim” stereotypical perceptions. If their goal really was equal treatment under the law, then why does it seem they’re attempting to reinforce such perceptions in so many minds? I have heard the opinion their goal is to do what the 19 hijackers could not do, permanently undermine America’s airline transportation system. Yet to believe that, one would have to believe these 6 imams and CAIR are conducting a deliberate economic attack upon the United States. If they succeed in their lawsuit, perception might become reality.

In the Star Tribune, March 12, 2007:

Six Muslim imams ordered off a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last November have filed a discrimination lawsuit against the airline and the Metropolitan Airports Commission, claiming they were removed from the plane because of their race and religion.

In a 38-page document filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, the plaintiffs said they were “horrified and humiliated” after police removed them, under pilot’s orders, from the plane in front of dozens of other passengers Nov. 20 “as if they were criminals.”

Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways, based in Tempe, Ariz., said Monday that the company hadn’t seen the suit and couldn’t comment on it. Nevertheless, she defended the actions the airline took that day after several passengers and flight attendants became alarmed by the imams’ behavior.

“This was an unfortunate incident,” Rader said. “But we do not discriminate against our customers or anyone else. The actions we took and the police took and the FBI took, they took based on behaviors that were observed. And they believed that was in the best interests of the safety of that flight. And we absolutely back those judgments.”

Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Airports Commission, also hadn’t seen the lawsuit, but said, “We believe airport police officers acted appropriately in responding to US Airways’ call for assistance.”

Update, March 14, 2007:
6 imams sue US Airways alleging discrimination
CAIR bars free press from press conference

Faja appeared at a news conference at the headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations after the imams filed a discrimination lawsuit against US Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission for being ordered off the flight.

The council barred a reporter from the Washington Times and a TV crew from Christian Broadcasting Network from the news conference.

Council spokesman Ibrahim Cooper said that the Christian Broadcasting Network airs anti-Islamic messages and that the Times reporter, Audrey Hudson, has covered the imams’ case unfairly in the past.

Hudson disputed that claim and said the council doesn’t want points of view other than its own represented.

Update: March 15, 2007

Katherine Kersten, of the Minneapolis-St Paul Star-Tribune identifies The real target of the 6 imams’ ‘discrimination’ suityou.

But the most alarming aspect of the imams’ suit is buried in paragraph 21 of their complaint. It describes “John Doe” defendants whose identity the imams’ attorneys are still investigating. It reads: “Defendants ‘John Does’ were passengers … who contacted U.S. Airways to report the alleged ‘suspicious’ behavior of Plaintiffs’ performing their prayer at the airport terminal.”

Paragraph 22 adds: “Plaintiffs will seek leave to amend this Complaint to allege true names, capacities, and circumstances supporting [these defendants’] liability … at such time as Plaintiffs ascertain the same.”

In plain English, the imams plan to sue the “John Does,” too.

Who are these unnamed culprits? The complaint describes them as “an older couple who was sitting [near the imams] and purposely turn[ed] around to watch” as they prayed. “The gentleman (‘John Doe’) in the couple … picked up his cellular phone and made a phone call while watching the Plaintiffs pray,” then “moved to a corner” and “kept talking into his cellular phone.”

In retribution for this action, the unnamed couple probably will be dragged into court soon and face the prospect of hiring a lawyer, enduring hostile questioning and paying huge legal bills. The same fate could await other as-yet-unnamed passengers on the US Airways flight who came forward as witnesses.

UPDATE March 15, 2007, 9:01 PM
Terrorists murdered 8 children and the parents of a few thousand on 9/11.

Unfriendly Skies

Unfriendly Skies

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW & COMMENTARY

Monday, the 6 imams who, on November 20, 2006, disrupted U.S. Airways Flight 300 filed a lawsuit naming the “John Doe” passengers who reported the imams’ frightening behavior as defendents. Even if the passengers are found not liable, airline travel will become far less safe. If furture passenger have to risk their life savings defending themselves against the high-priced lawyers the well-funded CAIR can supply the plaintiffs, how many will instead choose to fly terrorized or think of their kids and quit flying altogether?

There is a solution.

If someone, acting in good faith, reports suspicious behavior or items in airports or aboard a plane, they should be federally protected from civil action, as should the crews be who act upon those reports. And the safeguard is already in place as those who maliciously or falsely report such things are punishable under federal law for disrupting a commercial aircraft.

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