So Six Muslim Imams Walk Onto an Airplane
. . . and the results are not a joke.
The imams start praying up a storm.
Which (along with some other behavior) makes their fellow passengers nervous.
Which results in the imams being disinvited from the flight.
How unenlightened the passengers are!
It's almost as if they fear that groups of Muslim men who engage in unusual behavior before boarding a flight might be up to something!
Where could they have gotten that idea?
There is a bit more to the story. According to a report:
An airport police report said a US Airways manager said three of the men had one-way tickets and no checked baggage. A passenger told police the men were praying and making critical comments about the war in Iraq. Some of the men also asked for seat belt extensions even though a flight attendant told police she thought they didn't need them.
It could all add up to nothing, or it could have been a trial run to test defenses, or it could have been an attempt to provoke a reaction, or something more. Who knows? More importantly, who knew then?
Instead of demanding that all the other airline passengers be more culturally sensitive -- i.e., willing to shut up and bet their lives that nothing was amiss -- why not ask the six imams to be more culturally sensitive?
For example: If your religion allows it, pray earlier. If not, find a place to pray in private. Or before you start a prayer session in Arabic, give the folks around you reassuring smiles and tell them that you're going to be praying now.
Problem solved.
But no. The usual victimology has already begun. Some Muslims are threatening to boycott the airline.
Scrappleface jokes that the airlines will capitulate, offer Muslim prayer sections, and point the planes toward Mecca five times a day.
Atlas Shrugs has a different take: If these guys are boycotting, I am booking. A terror free airline. How great is that?
Thinkinboutstuff points out that making passengers and crew members hesitant to act through repeated provocation followed by cries of discrimination could be used as a strategy to weaken our defenses.
A Muslim commentator at Gateway Pundit says the imams could have been more discreet.
Investor's Business Daily gives kudos to US Airways for its courage and common sense and notes additional reasons to suspect that the six imams may have been up to something.
I'm surprised no one freaked when they turned down the porkchop sandwiches...
You mean they had the gaul to request belt-extenders!!... maybe these folks are assimilating better than we thought in emulating our growing average equatorial regions. How dare they be safe, follow FAA guidelines and be comfortable at the same time!
Okay, one way tickets... flag. No checked baggage... maybe flag (but then again do you take your entire wardrobe to a day conference? Going to flag every businessman?) I mean the money well spent by the Executive on post-911 identification systems should have differentiated these folks from the real nasties and this wigout could have been avoided right? Oh, I'm sorry... the computer says no?
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101314.html) I expect the full conservative wrath to be placed on the folks responsible for wasting our tax dollars.
"and making critical comments about the war in Iraq." We'll gee, you just no-fly-listed nearly 70% of the country!
Posted by: rpppolyp | November 22, 2006 at 11:05 AM