Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Sorry Imams, Please Exit The Plane; Yes, You Look Like Bin Laden... Oh Yeah, Thanks

by Joanna

How is this for irony? Two imams were headed to a conference addressing Islamophobia and prejudice in America, and instead of flying to their destination in peace, they were confronted with the theme of the conference head on.
Transportation Security Administration agents escorted two Muslim imams from a plane heading from Memphis, Tenn. to Charlotte, N.C. on Friday.

The men were on the Atlantic Southeast Airlines plane heading to a conference of the North American Imams Federation. The theme of the conference was prejudice and Islamophobia. Atlanta Southeast Airlines runs connection flights for Delta Airlines.

The Memphis-based imams, Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul, were both dresses in traditional Muslim garb when the plane was told to return to the gate after taxiing to the runway.

Rahman and Zaghloul were put through secondary security screenings and not allowed back on the plane. Rahman told reporters that a Delta representative looked embarrassed after speaking with the pilot.

The men said they were treated kindly by TSA agents, but they still don’t know why they weren’t allowed to fly on the plane.

Rahman and Zaghloul eventually made it to the conference.

Their attorney said his clients have not yet decided to take legal action, but he wants the pilot to be held responsible for the incident. SOURCE
Could you imagine? I guess the fact that other passengers were "uncomfortable" sharing a plane with men dressed in traditional Muslim clothing was more important than the rights of those men to freely travel about the country. Next thing you know, the US will be passing laws outlawing traditional Muslim garb, like Belgium and France have already implemented. Because apparently Muslim clothing, in the minds of many Americans, is like a "terrorist" uniform.

Instead of government officials and corporate representatives like the TSA agents and airline pilot involved in this case attacking the biased thinking of these fools, they capitulate to the demands of the bigots.

Imagine if , after Timothy McVeigh, a so called "Christian" bombed the state building in Oklahoma, people wearing crosses were profiled on the streets, pulled over and confronted, treated as "extremists" and "terrorists". The whole world would be up in arms. Imagine if priests were not allowed to wear their collar while flying in a plane with children, for fear that they would molest the kids. How fast would there be laws passed banning this sort of treatment? Quick, fast and in a hurry. But no, these men were not Christian and not white, so they are considered fair game.

Apture

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