RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: Idiotic airline: Muslim clerics kicked off US flights  Mon May 09, 2011 5:56 am | |
| Three imams including a US-born Muslim bound for a conference on Islamophobia were kicked off US domestic flights out of security fears, clerics and an airline say.
Two imams boarded a flight from Memphis, Tennessee, to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday only to have it return to the terminal so they could be put through "additional screening", said a spokesman for Atlantic South Airlines (ASA), the Delta Connection airline operating the flight.
"We take security and safety very seriously, and the event is currently under investigation," spokesman Jarek Beem said, adding that the men were put on the next available flight.
ASA is investigating the incident, "and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused", Mr Beem said.
US-born imam Al-Amin Abdul-Latif of Long Island was barred from boarding an American Airlines flight from New York to Charlotte late on Friday and told to return to LaGuardia airport for a morning flight on Saturday, only to be refused boarding again, without explanation, his son said.
"This morning we get to the airline, and the ticket agent told my father that the airline does not want him to fly. Those were her exact words," Abu Bakr Abdul-Latif said.
"There was nothing he could do," said the son, who travelled on to the Charlotte conference without his father.
Masudur Rahman, a permanent US resident from India and former Memphis imam who teaches Arabic at the University of Memphis, said he and another cleric, a US permanent resident from Egypt and dressed in a shoulder-to-ankle Islamic robe, were pulled off ASA flight 5452 and cleared through new security checks.
"But when we went to re-enter the plane, the Delta supervisor said 'Sorry, the pilot is not allowing you to enter,'" Mr Rahman said.
Delta negotiated at length with the pilot, noted Mr Rahman, who said he was told that "some passengers might be uncomfortable" with their presence on the plane.
"I think they were obviously upset to the extent that they were inconvenienced, but, you know, they understand what's going on in the world and particularly in the heightened sensitivities after the death of Osama bin Laden," Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told CNN.
Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda chief who orchestrated the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, was killed on Monday by US commandos in a daring raid deep inside Pakistan.
Al-Qaeda acknowledged their leader's death, and has vowed revenge on America for the killing.
The imams were heading to the North American Imams Federation conference entitled "Islamophobia: Diagnosis and Treatment".
ANCAPS: ANARCHO-CAPITALISTS
_________________
Anarcho Capitalists Retail , OZschwitz Downunder BoutiqueAnarcho-Capitalists,AnCaps Forum,Anti-State,Anti-Statist,Inalienable Rights Defenders,Non-Aggression Principle,Non-Initiation of Force Principle,Rothbardians,Anarchist,Capitalist,objectivism,Ayn Rand,Anarcho-Capitalism,Anarcho-Capitalist,politics,libertarianism,Ancap Forum,Anarchist Forum,Vulgar Libertarians,Hippies of The Right,Forum for Anarcho-Capitalist,Forum for Anarcho-Capitalists,Forum for AnCap,Forum for AnCaps,Libertarian,Anarcho-Objectivist,Freedom, Laissez Faire, Free Trade, Black Market, Randroid, Randroids, Rothbardian, AynArchist, Anarcho-Capitalist Forum, Anarchism, Anarchy, Free Market Anarchism, Free Market Anarchy, Market Anarchy
 |
|
