Muslim imams kicked off flight because other passengers were uncomfortable

[ConnorEl]

One Muslim (just a nut?) doing his part to reassure his fellow passengers...



Of course these incidents don't appear to be similar, as reported. But it's hard to blame passengers for being a little nervous. The actual terrorists have screwed things up for many...certainly air travel is less comfortable for "Muslim-looking" people and most everyone else.

 

[WhatUTalkinBout Willis]

worst thread so far on the new board. Please don't let it become the crazy clusterfuck the old board became...

 

[EatLeadCommie]

1. The guys that hijacked the planes in 9/11 weren't Imams. 2. They're not pajamas, and what does it matter if they are? Terrorists can't wear Levi's or Polos? If you're going to compare Imams to Priests, then you might as well compare the 9/11 hijacker terrorists to regular Catholics. If the 9/11 flights had been hijacked by Catholics, would you be afraid of every Catholic who was on your flight?

Of course, 9/11 didn't happen at the hand of Catholics, it happened at the hand of Muslims, which is really the most relevant thing in this debate. Muslims who speak strange sounding languages, have rigid prayer schedules, and happen to dress funky. Now, as RJ and you correctly pointed out, the 9/11 terrorists dressed in normal western attire (no doubt to keep attention from being drawn). The whole point of flying in the post-9/11 environment is to go through security and get to your location in as quick a fashion as possible. Dressing in your imam pajamas is just going to bring undue attention to yourself. You're already gonna get the extra passenger scrutiny simply by having a beard and looking middle eastern. Let's deal with reality here. I'm not saying these guys should have been thrown off the plane because I don't know and wasn't there. I am saying that maybe if they had dressed in a more normal fashion, this situation could have been avoided. So yeah, we can blame stupid rednecks for most of this, but the imams are not blameless.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

Of course, 9/11 didn't happen at the hand of Catholics, it happened at the hand of Muslims, which is really the most relevant thing in this debate. Muslims who speak strange sounding languages, have rigid prayer schedules, and happen to dress funky. Now, as RJ and you correctly pointed out, the 9/11 terrorists dressed in normal western attire (no doubt to keep attention from being drawn). The whole point of flying in the post-9/11 environment is to go through security and get to your location in as quick a fashion as possible. Dressing in your imam pajamas is just going to bring undue attention to yourself. You're already gonna get the extra passenger scrutiny simply by having a beard and looking middle eastern. Let's deal with reality here. I'm not saying these guys should have been thrown off the plane because I don't know and wasn't there. I am saying that maybe if they had dressed in a more normal fashion, this situation could have been avoided. So yeah, we can blame stupid rednecks for most of this, but the imams are not blameless.

They should have dressed differently. Muslims whom are more orthodox or conservative take the clothing rules more literally, just like how orthodox Jewish men wear yarmulkes. As Imams in public, they probably dress like that as representatives of the religion. That public just happened to be the airport unfortunately.

 

[jhmd2000]

Of course, 9/11 didn't happen at the hand of Catholics, it happened at the hand of Muslims, which is really the most relevant thing in this debate. Muslims who speak strange sounding languages, have rigid prayer schedules, and happen to dress funky. Now, as RJ and you correctly pointed out, the 9/11 terrorists dressed in normal western attire (no doubt to keep attention from being drawn). The whole point of flying in the post-9/11 environment is to go through security and get to your location in as quick a fashion as possible. Dressing in your imam pajamas is just going to bring undue attention to yourself. You're already gonna get the extra passenger scrutiny simply by having a beard and looking middle eastern. Let's deal with reality here. I'm not saying these guys should have been thrown off the plane because I don't know and wasn't there. I am saying that maybe if they had dressed in a more normal fashion, this situation could have been avoided. So yeah, we can blame stupid rednecks for most of this, but the imams are not blameless.

Why start now? I thought this board was about who can seem the most hypersensitive and idealistic?

 

[Shooshmoo]

Why start now? I thought this board was about who can seem the most hypersensitive and idealistic?

I think the hypersensitive folks might be the ones who think everyone who looks "Arab" must be a terrorist.

 

[DDA]

Haven't been following this thread closely (thankfully, apparently), but if the Imams were even remotely at fault, wouldn't we have heard it by now? Seriously.

Seems like Delta is sweeping this under the carpet by silently dealing with the situation (pilots). The last thing airlines need at this point is negative publicity, and Delta has certainly (seemingly) received all the neg pub they want, otherwise they would try to clear it up ASAP by issuing a response clarifying why the Imams were kicked off. Otherwise, it comes across as "nothing to see here"

This happened 3 days ago. If Delta wanted to clear it up, they would've done so by now. PR specialists don't wait that long regarding these types of things. 3 days = thousands of dollars potentially affected by this. Just saying.