The Christian “Our Father” a.k.a. “Lord’s Prayer” in Arabic.
The “Hail Mary” in Arabic.
It annoys me somewhat the levels that some posters here are reaching for to justify the actions of these silly people who raised concerns about the guys praying.
I can somewhat understand the silly people on the plane. They were obviously filled with fear, A fear that the present administion is so happy to spread. Helped by a complacent, lazy and in some cases duplicitous media. The posters here however are sitting in their office, cubicle, favourite hotspot or home, not face to face with the dangerous mumblings of a strange and merciless foe 
and yet they still are happy to cow down to these fears.
For shame.
There are real dangers and real bastards that want you, me and our way of life ended. This shite just waters down the real dangers however.
I don’t think being questioned in todays atmosphere is being treated like shit.
There is a certain normal human reaction when people are scared or feel there is a possible threat. We must all do our best to difuse the situation. It’s a fine line. Protect ourselves while trying to remain fair to others. Is it wise on their part to express their anger against the US in Iraq in an airport. Yes Arab men will be viewed suspiciously and while I understand some self righteous indignation, I don’t think it will help.
In a minor analogy. When I worked in bands I was on the road a lot after the bars close. I got pulled over by the cops a lot for little or no reason simply because of the time of day. Questioned and asked to get out of the car to do the sobriety tests. I learned that righteous indignation about my rights being violated did no good at all. Patient and respectful cooperation for someone doing their job got the best results every time.
I don’t want to see Muslims discriminated against but again, simply being questioned in todays atmosphere is not being wronged. A body cavity search maybe. A day or two in a cell for no reason, sure. One of them said
stop the drama. If thats the worst you’ve had a dam easy life. Much easier than your fellow Muslims in Iraq who are slaughtering each other.
I don’t know why the airline decided not to let them fly on any flights. Maybe a bad call by some official or maybe in part their own bad attitude, or some combonation of both. If the above quote is an indication of their reaction at the time then I don’t just blame the airline.
At what point does everyone else have to stop walking on eggshells for fear of offending an innocent Muslim. I think there are millions of people who are intelligent enough to not suspect or blame every muslim. What I want to see is more muslims spending as much time criticizing muslim terrorists as they do criticizing America. Do you think there’s an underlying sympathy and support in many Muslims for the us vs them battle? That’s the enemy.
I would expect anyone to stand up for their rights and I would hope non muslims would stand up against discrimination of muslims. Something as mild as being questioned in an airport might be expected and tolerated. My god the last time they conviscated my shampoo and after shave the heartless bastards.
One of the things King and Gandhi had to struggle with was to convince their own supporters not to return hate for hate, anger for anger, and resentment for resentment. I totally support their right to boycott any airline. I also support those Muslims who make real efforts to educate muslims and non muslims about non violence and peaceful coexistance based on respect.
“Peace Train Sounding Louder, ride on the Peace Train.”
What disturbs me is a certain anger and resentment I see among muslims that reflects a certain underlying support for acts of violence. After 9/11 we had three arab men come into the store and two of them were making jokes and suspicious comments. I think it was just to screw with the frightened Americans but the FBI actually showed up. They were lucky they weren’t hurt. It’s not a joke. If you disagree with American policy then fine, but being quietly pleased about violence against the west only fans the flames.
If someone really cares about working for social justice then they must be smart enough to realize that righteous indignation is not enough. You must be concerned about social justice for those outside your immediate group. I assume thats what you’re saying here and I agree. I don’t always think that all Muslims are as interested in defending my rights as they are the rights of other muslims.
Regardless, rights are often a matter of balance. In light of the current status of the world how about the rights of people to feel secure. Is submitting to a few questions to much of others to ask?
I do know to spell administration BTW
I think you make a valuble point, but in this case it wasn’t just their praying that caused the problem, so maybe those of us sitting at home are just reading the whole thing…ya think?
Speaking of reading the whole thing, you are ignoring the Imams were refused service again after the few questions.
I’ve read the whole thing. What exactly did these people do then to merit being ejected from a flight and then after questioning to be refused another?
Please explain and tell me in simple easy language, as you seem to be more skilled in understanding the subtleties than me.
Actually I mentioned it specifically so I think that means I didn’t ignore it doesn’t it?
Doesn’t it? Before you criticize someone for not reading the whole thing I suggest you read their whole response. …hehe…I love irony.
This reminds me of a little story an old supervisor told me when I was employed on my first job after university over thirty years ago. It really taught me a lesson.
"There was a dead man being placed into a coffin by a mortician but there was some difficulty in closing the casket because the man’s arm was stuck straight out from his chest… "
You probably know the story.
Your suggested response certainly tugged at my heartstrings and I just wished for the sake of everyone that the Imams had responded in kind. As it is they do have a beef and a right to retaliate, but they are not helping themselves or those of us who are upset by the hysteria around us.
Poor wording from my part, by non-private I meant that the information on that RFID chip can be read by any third party.
The lack of a transit visa is indeed a royal PITA, I would had to go through the same screening process as if I would be entering the USA; I can´t be arsed to detail and document my entire life, work and family relationships the Uncle Sam at this particular moment.
I still can´t confirm I´ll have the chance to visit Paris, I have three different itineraries to choose from to get from here to Munich and from there to Bangkok; one with a stop in Madrid, the other Rome and the last Paris. I feel like a kid on a candy store. 
Really? so that is why you dropped that item in your long explanation at the end? in essence, you can say you acknowledge it, but you are only showing how good you are at spewing BS.
Actually to be more blunt it just means that your explanation was still BS
Ah now, you’re too harsh.
cosmosdan knows all about being harassed by the man. She was stopped for suspected drunken driving while out at night. She’s been there :rolleyes:
“Just being questioned”?
Six imams were removed from their plane in handcuffs by police in front of all the cowering idiots for no better reason than that they were different after three of them were caught praying. This despite the fact that prior to the conference in Minneapolis, their organization had notified both the FBI and the local police that they were going to have a conference in that city, so the police had actually been informed of their presence. And despite the fact that they had made an effort to not be disruptive:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15856333/site/newsweek/
Dr. Shahin’s “most humiliated” remark was not a reference to being questioned, but a reference to the entire event of being removed in handcuffs and then prevented from taking a later flight on the same airline and being denied assistance by US Airways to help the group find a flight on any other airline.
So when a group of people who have broken no laws, have taken extraordinary steps to not “look” suspicisous–even notifying the police in advance of their travel–are hauled off a plane in cuffs and denied the right to fly on an airline, despite the fact that they do not fit anything resembling the profile of a terrorist, (middle aged overweight guys with briefcases, one of whom is visually disabled, do not fit the profile of any of the 19 guys on September 11, John Reid, or any other terrorist), except for their religion and ethnicity, then I think they have not a right but an obligation to react publicly with anger. For all the posters who think that they should just go away so that we stop feeling bad about the injustice they sufferred, I will point out that Dr. King’s first national exposure was to call for a boycott of a public transportation service that acted in an unfair manner toward a black person.
I do think the fact that the Imams were refused service after they were cleared in the interrogation, the key point in this whole incident.
It makes long opinions regarding the Imams to accept “few questions” to be really moot. The hand waving at that key point is what I see as BS, I read again her specific mention of that, she only explained why she was ignoring it, and with explanations pulled out of the ass.
You didn’t mention them being refused another flight in your previous post did you?
You just made fun of others posters in regard to these men praying. Thats all you mentioned.
In fact from the article.
and not understand
So obviously it wasn’t as silly as just being alarmed by Muslims who were praying was it?
Do I think it was a little discrimination and profiling? Likely. I also think it’s horribly naive of Arabic men to not understand this part of human nature. Muslims and non Muslims must work together to offer a sense of security to each other.
You are right. This admin has committed a moral crime in spreading fear. The media is duplicitous in this crime. I think thats an important point. I don’t feel any urgent terrorist threat when I go shopping here in Nashville. If I was getting on a flight with Arabic men whom I thought were acting in any way suspicious my choice would be , do I say something or not. Do I pass it off as irrational fear in the face of very real acts of terror and very real deaths or do I suppress it because I might inconvenience or offend some innocent person. Finding the balance is not easy and I don’t find it unreasonable for some posters to put themselves in the passengers place and understand.
So your casual and offhand ridicule while sitting safely at your computer is unappreciated. I hope you read all of that and got the message.
And the message is: “I’ll willfuly ignore that they were interrogated and the authorities said they were OK to continue”
Wow, somebody criticising the US policy and presence in Iraq. I’ve never heard the like before in my life. Where were these people again? America, or some tin pot shit hole where criticism of the state and it practises are not allowed. Are airports places where such conversations between friends are banned? God forbid someone questions things with their friends while sitting around in airport of all places. Would it be ok if they were in a bar or a café? Or is such speech not allowed in the US nowadays?
Did someone ask why the request was made? If there was a doubt, what’s wrong with asking the question before hand in a polite and controlled manner? I have no problem with having a few guys/gals in the far background ready to deal with trouble if the person couldn’t give a good answer and seemed a real threat but that’s not how it went down was it? These people were let on the plane.
I got the message. It’s one I disagree with. You’re wrong IMO and your kinda thinking and POV annoys me more than some of the extreme positions held by others as it comes from the middle ground. You see the problems but are willing to accept other innocent people not just inconvenienced but harassed and targeted because of their differences.
I am of a nationality that until recently meant that I was a possible target for such things when travelling and living in the UK. Innocent people that could’ve been me*, not some foreign stranger who should just suck it up, were locked up for decades or abused by the state just because of profiling and the fear. Maybe this kind of shit is a bit more real for me than it is for you.
*I’ve had machines guns and search warrants pushed in my and my family’s face because of the same kinda crap . I’m a normal joe soap BTW not some radical.
For your safety and comfort, chanting in the terminal is not permitted.
–The Management
For starters how about noticing the dan in there. Why would assume I’m a she? Unless that was an attempt at humor. In which case…good one :rolleyes:
My point which I acknowledged as a minor analogy was that I knew I would be stopped on some kind of regular basis for little or no reason simply because it was 2 am and police did random stops. I had to decide how to deal with that fact of life.
I’m not in favor of accepting unwarranted harassment but I think intelligent people should expect a certain amount of profiling in certain situations without acting to indignant. I accepted that them officers were simply doing their job and choose polite cooperation. Do you think when the men were approached on the flight they chose that reaction?
Of course it is still good to make that point only by safely ignoring what happened next.
Here is a hint for you since you seem to have lost the Ovaltine decoder ring for your brain: you did/are mentioning the item, but only to say it was/is ok to ignore. Looking at your silly reasons, it is clear it was not OK to ignore the fact they were interrogated and then the airline still refused to allow them to travel.
You are still discussing half of what took place.