There was a very interesting segment on Democracy Now! about this story. Amy Goodman interviews two of the men involved. While it is just one side of the story, it is pretty darn compelling. I think this was fear and paranoia in action.
I do understand that fear and paranoia may be high on airplanes right now. The major injustice that US Airways committed was to not fly these guys after the FBI had cleared them after 5 hours of interviewing them. I do blame the paranoid passengers, too, though. I think people incorrectly equate terrorism with Islam. As usual, I am surprised that atheists like me are the ones standing up for these guys. You know the crazy left, all obsessed with civil liberties and shit.
lolife 
I’m not an apologist. I listened to these guys in their own words. I also think your average paranoid white person is more suspicious of Muslims than they should be. Maybe these guys did try to raise a scene but it doesn’t seem like it to me. Even if they did try to raise a scene they never at any point did anything illegal. I think white Protestants acting the exact same way would not have been treated like this.
Note that every link you supplied was op-ed, not news reporting. The right wing is all a-flutter about this. They want to be able to be as suspicious as they want of Muslims. What the fuck is up with that agenda?
My only agenda in this is to make sure that we are not acting in a discriminatory manner.
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So, which one needed an extension? None. Why did they not use them? They rolled them up AND PUT THEM UNDER THEIR SEATS. This is really suspicious behavior. If they would have used them in the normal way, it would not have raised an eyebrow.
Boo fucking hoo. After disrupting the lives of 300 other people and being total fucking assholes, they didn’t get red carpet treatment. My heart bleeds. Dude, you’ve travelled alot, have you ever been bumped from, or missed a flight? Do you just hop onboard another plane in an hour? Rarely, if never. Seems to me that a 5 hour delay after being bumped off is pretty typical. Plus, this is really off topic, I’m talking about you accusing the passengers and flight crew of racism, Islamo-phobia and general Ugly-Americanism.
Publicity stunt. Demonstrate how Muslims are discriminated against in our society. Further their victim class status. This is not only credible but entirely obvious. They had a rally a couple of days later at Reagan Int. covered by every media outlet, this story has been huge. Their organization (CAIR) is way more widely known than it was 2 weeks ago.
Why are you an apologist for these guys? We’ve debated a lot of issues but I really feel you are way off the reservation on this one.
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That’s an op-ed piece by Katherine Kersten, a Right wing zealot. Not very credible. For example, 2 of the imams are overweight! One is blind! These are facts.
I have agreed that tensions can be high on airplanes these days. Why, though, after 5 hours of being cleared by the FBI did US Airways not fly these guys? The FBI got on the phone with them to explain that the men were cleared! There was no disruption on the Northwest Airlines flight that finally took them home.
The fact is, it was paranoia. The men were not terrorists. You claim they did this deliberately — why? What was their goal? To be detained and interrogated? That is just not credible.
If you want to call it justifiable paranoia, we might get close to agreeing. I think it is reeks of Islamophobia.
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micadelic again with his dead horse…
Please also read this article in yesterday’s Star Tribune, which appears as a local news article and not an opinion piece.
Since I doubt that any of you will actually read it as it represents an “inconvenient truth” for you, let me just post the following excerpt:
It was the suspicious activity onboard the plane – splitting up in pairs into seats fore, mid and aft cabin, asking for un-needed seat belt extensions, overheard anti-American statements, etc. that caused alarm. The pilot consulted with the airline’s security personnel, airport officials, etc. before asking the Imams to deplane.
When you board an aircraft, you are entering a different realm where some of your civil rights are somewhat suspended. You can’t run freely about the cabin, you can’t smoke,
So, since it appears the passengers and crew were something less than ignorant racist fucktards, is anybody here feeling a little sheepish for heaping those kinds of acusations on the fine folks aboard that craft that were terribly inconvenienced just trying to get from point A to point B.
I doubt it.
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If anyone thinks this whole ordeal was anything other than a publicity stunt, please read this piece in the Wall Street Journal.
Again, this was an orchestrated stunt to garner as much attention as possible and anyone who thinks otherwise has had the wool pulled over their eyes. Please, don’t fall for this crap.
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Yes, one side of the story indeed. I’ve read the police reports, I’ve read the eyewitness statements and I firmly believe that these guys were trying to create a scene and in fact, trying to get kicked off the flight. This was a publicity stunt, pure and simple. I’d bet my life on it.
Now they want a prayer room at the airport? There are already meditation rooms, or non-denominational prayer rooms at just about every airport I’ve ever been in. Why can’t they use those? They need a special one for the Muslims? I’m fucking tired of these assholes behaving like petulant children and half the world defending them like a bad parent who’s child rules the roost. You can’t draw a picture of the prophet, you can’t mention that they may have a problem with violence, you can’t convert from Islam to anything without threat of being fucking killed or at the very least shunned.
Sorry, these guys, the “Flying Imams,” are the assholes. They deserved to be kicked off the flight and the flight crew made the correct call.
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