NAACP / Democrats jumps on the Imams bandwagon

The repercussions of U.S. Airways' decision to remove a group of imams from a commercial flight in Minneapolis has now resonated in Congress this year. Civil rights groups are pushing the Democratic Congress to ban racial profiling.

I would remind everyone that the imams' behaviour attracted the attention of nearby passengers and the crew. If you can check my previous posts on this issue as well as blogs and news outlets, there is definitely more information that the major news networks fail to mention.

An arabic speaker near one of the imams told a flight attendant that the imams were invoking "bin Laden" and condemning America "for killing Saddam" in their prayers. The imam in first class asked for a seatbelt extension even though he looked too thin and he placed the belt extension on the floor. Another imam got up in first class and moved to the back of the plane in coach. Why would he do that? A married couple next to him tried to strike up a conversation, and he ignored them. Other factors included that three of them had one-way tickets. Between the six men, only one had a checked bag. They were spread out on the plane: two in first class, two in the middle, and two back in the economy section. It also looks like they were sitting in seats not assigned to them.

Also, consider this: in Islamic practice, praying is usually done once at sundown, not twice. For these six imams, they prayed at the gate, then on the plane.

If you ask me, the imams were deliberately trying to get kicked off the flight.

However, these facts are being ignored by civil rights groups and some Democratic lawmakers. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution are introducing a ban on racial profiling.

Senator Feingold:
"Many law-abiding African Americans, Arab Americans, Latino Americans and others live with the fear of being racially profiled as they go about their everyday lives."

Hilary Shelton, director of NAACP's Washington Office
"I'm convinced that once the body of evidence of racial profiling occurring in our nation is presented before the U.S. Congress and the American people, that indeed they'll be compelled to do something about it."

Peter Gadiel, president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America
"The 9/11 atrocity was committed by 19 young single men from Arab nations. If you want to hand this country over to terrorists, why don't you say it right out front? We don't have to worry about 80-year-old ladies with bleach-blonde hair and southern accents."

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I believe that if you see someone or several persons acting suspiciously on the plane, you have that right to speak up and tell the flight crew your concerns no matter what. I continue to advocate that these six imams are just an opportunistic group trying to elicit criticism on our law enforcement by trying to intimidate everyone with their ethnicity.

If you disagree, I invite you to visit the many sites that have analysed this incident from front to back, top to bottom.