(CNN) — An airline is investigating the removal of two imams from a flight headed to North Carolina, ostensibly because passengers felt uncomfortable with their presence of the pair — both clad in Islamic attire. The incident occurred Friday on an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight from Tennessee to North Carolina and it involved Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were wearing traditional Muslim dress, CNN affiliate WCNC reported.
The two — who hold high religious positions in the Muslim community — were headed to North Carolina for a conference on prejudice against Muslims, or Islamaphobia. The meeting is sponsored by the North American Imams Federation. Rahman, who is a professor at the University of Memphis, told the affiliate that the incident reminded him of the prejudice Rosa Parks faced during the civil rights movement.
“That history I found today in that plane, and it shouldn’t happen with any other person,” he said. “They went through security, even went through secondary security, and got on the plane, were taxiing out,” he said. But then, they were taxied back, Hooper said. “TSA came on and pulled them off and said the pilot was refusing to fly with them because passengers were uncomfortable with them,” Hooper said, referring to the Transportation Security Administration.
Hooper said officials re-screened them and found they were no threat.
While officials tried to get the men back on the plane, “the pilot absolutely refused and ultimately took off,” Hooper said.
Oh well, guess we’ll just have to get used to this.
As we persecute people for ther faith and dress we create the radicalism we fear.
Spot on comment @smartalix
Wearing clothes that provoke fear in the ignorant is asking for trouble. This country is full of reactionary fearful assholes like #3.
It took me all of 2 minutes to find these
“Grand Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of the Al-Azhar mosque of Cairo – which is seen as the highest authority in Sunni Islam – said groups which carried out suicide bombings were the enemies of Islam. Speaking at the conference in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, Sheikh Tantawi said extremist Islamic groups had appropriated Islam and its notion of jihad, or holy struggle, for their own ends.
BBC News, 11 July, 2003”
“Memo to Osama bin Laden:
“I would rather live in America under Ashcroft and Bush at their worst, than in any “Islamic state” established by ignorant, intolerant and murderous punks like you and Mullah Omar at their best.”
A thought-provoking, controversial, pre-war article by Muqtedar Khan, Ph.D., February 12, 2003″
“Qaradawi Rejects Al-Qaeda’s Killing of Innocents
Prominent Muslim scholar Dr. Youssef Al-Qaradawi has condemned Al-Qaeda for their fuel tanker suicide bombing of a centuries-old Jewish synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba in April 2002.”
“”Islam is not the source of terrorism, but its solution”, says author Harun Yahya.
“It is time that we Muslims acknowledge that the freedoms we enjoy in the US are more desirable to us than superficial solidarity with the Muslim World. If you disagree, then prove it by packing your bags and going to whichever Muslim country you identify with.”
Dr. M. A. Muqtedar Khan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ed Bradley: Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it the responsibility… Does not Islam, does not Allah require that Muslims police their own religion and rid themselves of extremists?
Hamza Yusuf: Yes, absolutely. It’s an obligation for Muslims to root them out. And I think it is a jihad now for the Muslims in the Muslim country to rid themselves of this element.
CBS’s 60 Minutes, September 30, 2001″
#5, you’re completely wrong. #3 merely wants to make strip searching a norm in the society, especially by big brother.
#8
/implying that a “terrorist” would dress radically differently from the rest of the society in order to disguise themselves from the authorities.
Ya ya Enough Already, and if someone were to dress like a priest they should be arrested for child molestation.
…nonsense!
#6–skeptic==what do those quotes from other people from 10 years ago got to do with anything?
#11
You do realize that there are air marshals to intervene whenever this happens, right?
Your big bureaucratic big brother is loving to watch ya!
“Dickhead muslims let their religion be characterized by people who go boom in mosques, markets and planes.”
Oh really? Have you done any fact finding on that? Did you not read my examples in post #6?
“If it were a KKK troop terrorizing black people on the plain, scaring the shit out of them, YOU would agree something clothing is inappropriate for flight”
Except that is not even close to a comparison to what happened on the recent flight. YOU are the one screaming fire in a crowded theater Tea Dude.
#12 Bobbo, I was referring to Tead Duds statement: “Dickhead Muslims, why not confront radical Islam so it becomes so rare, these things don’t happen…and people aren’t afraid of Muslims? Not a word against those muslims blowing up mosques daily, and thereby burning thousands of Korans.”
The age of my quotes is relevant as tit illustrates in hindsight that Muslim leaders DO confront radical Islam after radical attacks.
I agree with alfie, everyone should just fly naked.
They put the poor slobs through an enhanced pat down twice….they should have been allowed to fly free after that.
The only difference is Rosa Parks did not have a long history of terrorism, did not wear a disguise, and did not set up military camps to train thousands of people to kill all whites. Nice try Iman, until you do something to show you are not with them, you will be viewed as being with them.
#11 said: “If it were a KKK troop terrorizing black people on the plain, scaring the shit out of them, YOU would agree something clothing is inappropriate for flight.”
Uhm, you meant “plane” not “plain” right?
Sometimes people should be considerate of how others may react to the way they are dressed, regardless of what they wear, and for what ever reason they wear it. This story says to me that the terrorists have been successful. There is more to terrorism than killing people.
#17–skeptic==wouldn’t the fact you had to go 10 years back allow anyone to infer that things have gotten worse?
But anyway===empty words can be found on any side of any issue you want to advance. Bad Thinking if you actually think quoting anyone proves anything.
Its not the Muslims who want peace that are going to kill you, its the muslims who don’t. Who are they? Hard to tell, so the issue really becomes how risk tolerant are you of your life? Your families life? And so forth. Why indeed be risk tolerant at all? Its just a question, I could find quotes to whatever position you wanted to take.
but a melting pot is about====melting. Giving up your old ways and adopting new. When people demonstrate they want to bring their old values and change the majority culture, how do you know where they draw the line? How tolerant “should” you be?
I think we in USA will see how France, then England, then Germany/Spain take on the issue. Hibabs outlawed in Denmark. Yes, the Danes know how tolerant you should be of people who want to kill you.
Oft times, when the truth reveals itself, its too late to avoid it.
The All-American thing to have done was return aircraft to gate. Open door. Make following announcement “Everyone on this plane has been scanned or felt-up and deemed safe to fly. If you want to leave the aircraft do so as quickly as possible. We’re goin’ to Charlotte. Anyone who interferes will talk to my assistants Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson.”
I sincerely hope it is merely a troll and yet I fear he’s sincere.
It’s the attitude exhibited by douchebags like #8 that not only erodes the rights and freedoms that Americans enjoy but also encourages the rest of the world to hate us.
Thanks Douchebag
The brave (not) and the proud (not) are flying our planes.
Chicken shits.
Give me the keys.
#23–WmDE==excellent. Just Excellent.
YOU KNOW: Pilots don’t know shit except for what the air hostesses tell them over the intercom. Who told who what, why? I’d like to hear the recorder on this one and what the airlines will actually do.
should be lawsuits aplenty. Common Carriers have a very high standard of care.
People R dumb dudes….next story please
I fly a lot. Try getting on a plane with some drunken rednecks. Or a high school cheer leading squad.
I see a lot hijabs where I travel. I’ve learned that America has become more afraid of itself then any external threat. It’s a sure sign of decline.
Now we know what to do to avoid being stranded on the tarmac for hours… simply tell the pilot you’re afraid of someone on board… ’tis a shame the crew ignores the passengers concerns at all other times isn’t it?
I can’t find it in myself to feel bad for any muslim who suffers suspicion like that.
I STILL recall the reaction from America’s “muslim community” in the immediate wake of 9/11. “We’re not like that/them” was the UNIVERSAL protest from any and all muslisms who got near a news media microphone or was otherwise quoted.
With a SINGLE, LONE EXCEPTION, NONE of those f*ckers EVER said that what the muslim terrorists did on 9/11 WAS WRONG OR EVIL.
The lone exception was a single mosque leading cleric in the north east some where who stated that it was an Evil act and that the muslims, who knew who the radicals in their community were, should inform the FBI of said radicals. He was the SOLE saving grace for the entire “muslim american” community, who otherwise said at every opportunity, “we’re not like that” with nary a condemnation of the act itself.
In the arab world (middle east, north africa, presuably asia), the muslims LITERALLY broke out in spontaneous street celebrations when they learned that a jihadist attack on the WTC had occurred.
Quite frankly, it’s STILL hard to find actual condemnation of terrorist attacks against the West from muslims in the US news media. It’s easy to find claims that islam is a religion of peace (and if you say otherwise we’ll cut your f*cking head off!), but you’d be very hard pressed to hear them actually, blatantly condemn the acts of terrorism against Infidels themselves.
Meanwhile, in Dearborn (or thereabouts), MI, home to the largest muslim population in America, it’s not to hard to find videos of hundreds of muslim males chanting that Lebanon’s hezbollah (and thus Iran) is their leader…
The simple fact is is that islam accounts for a very large percentage of ideologically driven terrorist activity in the world today. Only communist terrorism outstrips it in a few countries where communist “freedom forces” are still active like in south America.
So, yeah, us Infidels are going to look at anybody who insists on wearing muslim garb in the heart of a western country as extremely suspect. They’re making a statement about where their true loyalty and goals lay.
A good portion of the koran is dedicated in one way or another to “kill or convert” Holy War against Infidels. Their Prophet’s last command was to convert the entire world to islam. Said Prophet’s life had been dedicated to killing everybody who refused to convert to his religion. Unlike Liberals, Christians recognize that Muhammud’s Examples and Messages means as much to muslims as Jesus’ Examples and Messages means to Christians. So the fact that the role model of islam was “convert or die, infidel!” is taken seriously by Christians. Religion hating Liberal’s lack that bit of basic comprehension.
@18 Go spend an hour in a midwest walmart then get back to me on the fly nekked thing.
I kicked a guy in the hijabs once.
Bobbo, if you actually cared to read what I said, I indicated that I spent 2 minutes to prove that Muslim clerics have spoken out against Jihah terrorism.
From that you conclude, “the fact you had to go 10 years back allow anyone to infer that things have gotten worse?”
Really? I had to? I inferred that? I always thought you were smarter than that. I simply took the first link on a Google search. I explained what my intention was when you first asked. I made it pretty clear. Are you that thick? Apparently so.
For the record, my real opinion (not the one you have attempted to give me) is that the dangers of terrorism and Muslim reaction are about the same as they were 10 years ago.
WmDE, excellent idea. You should pass it on to Southeast Airlines and all the other commercial airlines as well. Seriously.
#34–skeptic==so now the inference is you don’t know any more about Muslim Terrorist Activities now than you know about the same 10 years ago?
But anyway==the inference remains whether or not that is your intent or understanding. Facts are facts. Inferences are inferences. Conclusions are conclusions. Personally, I see facts, inferences, but nothing substantial enough for any conclusion at all.
How often does anything stay the same over a ten year period? Does that notion more likely point to some other issue rather than informed judgment?
Why, yes, I think it does. Whats “my” real opinion? I think there has been a trend definitely in one direction, but I don’t have the foggiest as to which direction that is. Its all highly definitional, and we haven’t defined anything. Ain’t that a hoot?
I for one thing we should be very concerned about white bible thumpers with a skewed political agenda. I mean look what happened in Oklahoma City…
(No one look at Tdud, lest he suspect we’re on to him)