Posted by
Craig Freeborn on Thursday, November 23, 2006 4:56:27 PM
Last Tuesday, passengers waiting to board their flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix noticed a curious thing. Six men – of apparent Middle Eastern descent – had started to gather in a corner of the waiting area. They became a little unnerved when the six began chanting “Allah, Allah, Allah”.
When the gate attendants called the passengers to board the plane, these travelers watched apprehensively as the six men walked toward the gate. Their stomachs began to churn when they heard them – with heavy accents – make critical comments about the war in Iraq.
Once on board, the six took separate seats scattered throughout the cabin. Some asked for “seatbelt extenders” – although one flight attendant later said they didn’t appear to need them.
Finally, three of them stood and conspicuously start chanting again. The passengers couldn’t understand the words, but did recognize “Allah akbar”.
Now, actually frightened, at least one of the passengers passed a note to a flight attendant. She gave the note to the pilot and he contacted airport security. It was quickly determined that three of the men had one-way tickets and no baggage – a huge red flag.
All six were asked to step off the plane so that security concerns could be addressed.
This should have been the end of the story.
But in these days of political correctness, these six Imams are now threatening to sue, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling for a boycott of US Airways, and the passengers are being called racists.
But any Freeborn American placed in the same situation would be justified in taking reasonable precautions. Removing the chanting Imams from the plane until their security threat could be evaluated is certainly reasonable.
In a post 9/11 world – as President George W. Bush recently said – “W
Had US Airways ignored this suspicious behavior and these chanting Imams actually hijacked the plane, they would have correctly been vilified.
Yet the FBI is now investigating – not the Imams, but US Airways! This is the same FBI that ignored a report of one of its own agents – also in Phoenix – detailing suspicious behavior of three of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers!
Were these chanting Imams a real threat? Were they testing the system? Were they simply naive and surprised their behavior elicited concern?
I don’t know. But this much I do know:
- Rather than praying silently, these chanting Imams deliberately drew attention to themselves in a crowded airport.
- The passengers were vigilant and justifiably concerned.
- The authorities acted prudently in removing them.
- US Airways is my kind of airline.