From here, I learn two things:
- It only takes one moron to screw things up.
- 63% of the people taking the poll thought the airline did the right thing and 65% think no investigation of the incident is needed.
That’s ridiculous.
Yep, that is pretty crappy. Unfortunately, the airline being a private company has a right to refuse service. I don’t know why 63% of Americans have a problem with public prayer. Americans need to realize that we need these moderate Muslim clerics if we are ever going to get some control on the extremists.
Hunh, I thought everybody prays before getting on a US Scareways flight. I know I do.
OK, cheap shot, I know it.
So somebody just handed you your ass, and you lost it already?
Huh?
you sure about that? you shouldn’t be.
If anyone blows up a plane, they’re not going to be praying out loud. They will dress and act like westerners. They may not even look Arab. The guy in the long robes praying out loud to Allah? That’s the guy you don’t need to worry about.
The article didn’t give much detail. I want to know what the imams’ actions were. Did they stand to pray? Sit? Kneel? Kneel and chant? Were they loud? Were they in a circle? I’m having a hard time picturing what they did that would lead anybody to believe they were going to cause trouble on the plane.
I saw an interview with one of the complaining passengers on the evening news. He said his little kid got scared at the strange men doing scary stuff. Dad felt completely justified in raising a ruckus, wasn’t at all embarrassed at the possibility the six men might be harmless victims of hysteria.
It seems extremely doubtful that anyone would attempt a terrorist act in this manner, and the p.r. fallout is unfortunate.
“…a US Airways manager said three of the men had only one-way tickets and no checked baggage…An airport police officer and a federal air marshal agreed that the combination of circumstances was suspicious, and eventually asked the men to leave the airplane, the police report said…But Shahin and Marwan Sadeddin, another of the imams, strongly denied doing anything out of the ordinary.”
Um, having no checked baggage and one-way tickets is out of the ordinary, and one wonders to what degree our Six Traveling Imams* were either a) hoping to provoke some incident, or b) idiots.
*for some reason I am reminded of an SCTV routine involving Identical OPEC Oil Ministers.
The article’s eighth paragraph may clear that up for you:
And the “number of things that gave the flight crew pause” appear to be:
[ol][li]Being an Arabic man[/li][li]Praying in the terminal[/li][li]Making critical comments about the war in Iraq[/li][li]One way tickets[/li][li]No checked baggage[/li][/ol]
Interesting. I know some guys from Egypt who have a similar complexion to mine. I pray in terminals (mainly because I’m a bit afraid of flying). I have been known to make some critical comments about the war in Iraq. I occasionaly fly on one way tickets. And I usually don’t have any checked baggage. Guess I’m a terrorist too.
So, Jackmanii, to what degree am I an idiot or provoking an incident on purpose when I travel on vacation? When returning to Korea, I don’t have time to be hanging around for my checked baggage to come through if I want to catch the train to Busan and manage to make it to work the next day.
I also find it odd that a random passenger was aware that three of the Imams had only one-way tickets and no checked baggage.
I think these Imams should be a little more understanding. A bunch of Muslim guys praying before they get on the same airplane? Sorry, what does that bring to mind. While that activity might be normal in a country that sees a lot of devout Muslims praying all the time, that is not the case here. For one of them to claim that this incident illustrates that they are prevented from practicing their religion in the U.S. is ridiculous.
On a brighter note, if their called boycott gains momentum, I know what I’ll be trying to fly on.
I had no idea US Airways passenger flights even had ejector seats.
*“Sami’a Allahu liman hamidah–” * PWOOOMPH
I’m glad I usually fly Delta.
Has the US really reverted to “act like everyone else, or suffer the consequences”?
I never have any checked baggage. No wonder my son gets pulled out of the line every time we fly. Every time!
So, it was only 4 times total, but still.
The four chaplains on the S.S. Dorchester?
It certainly does not bring to mind the nineteen terrorists from September, 2001 who each boarded their respective planes individually, making no attempt to pray at all, much less publicly, and certainly not together.
Maybe we need to rachet up our unfounded paranoia just another notch.
Well, what does it bring to mind? Am I missing something, or is it common knowledge that terrorists pray in airports before boarding doomed flights?
Yeah, tom. Maybe I should too. Just Sunday, I got mistaken for a Yemeni by, get this, a Yemeni! Maybe next vacation, I’ll just swim there.