Muslim Imams Removed From Airline

The problem with Bush's crusade on all Islam, as his policies seem to be, is that innocent Americans get their rights trampled both by the government and by other citizens who have been stirred into a frenzy of paranoia by Bush's fear mongering.

Salon.com reports the latest in nearly 5 years of innocent Muslim-Americans (and, occasionally, Sikhs mistaken for Muslims) being hassled and profiled as terrorists.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday and questioned by police for several hours before being released, a leader of the group said.

The six were among passengers who boarded Flight 300, bound for Phoenix, around 6:30 p.m., airport spokesman Pat Hogan said.

A passenger initially raised concerns about the group through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways. She said police were called after the captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane and the men refused.

"They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way," said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix.

The six Muslim scholars were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, president of the group. Five of them were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, Calif., he said.

Three of them stood and said their normal evening prayers together on the plane, as 1.7 billion Muslims around the world do every day, Shahin said. He attributed any concerns by passengers or crew to ignorance about Islam.

Had they been Christians engaged in a prayer group, would anyone have raised concerns? Had they been Jews davening, would anyone have raised concerns? But Muslims praying suddenly is suspicious enough to warrent removing six religious leaders from the plane.

Bush ignores the direct warnings of agencies like the CIA and FBI and of Clinton's entire administration, but is more than willing to see Muslim-Americans discriminated against fairly routinely in the name of "security." If you want real security, stop hassling innocent Americans (something that has stopped not one single terrorist incident) and instead pay attention to US intelligence reports, screen cargo coming into ports and carry out the recommendations of the 9/11 report.

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