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March 21, 2007

Moderate Muslim Leader Speaks Out: 'He'll Defend Airline Passengers Sued By Flying Imams - At No Cost

Six imams are suing the U.S. Airways, Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission, and the unnamed "John Does" to be named later, for discrimination, saying they were removed from the flight for praying in the airport. It's important to remember that the imams exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists, apparently purposefully, and were not merely engaged in prayers:

The Washington Times reports that lawyers and a Muslim group say they will defend at no cost airline passengers caught up in a lawsuit between those, now infamous, flying imams (supported and encouraged by CAIR) and U.S. Airways, if the passengers are named as "John Does" and sued for reporting the suspicious behavior that got the Muslim clerics booted off a U.S. Airways flight in November. Only a month later when CAIR began encouraging American Muslims making a religious pilgrimage to Mecca to file civil rights complaints if they feel discriminated against by airlines, M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix physician and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), said the announcement by CAIR "continues the tired stoking of the flames of victimization," for which CAIR has attempted to make an art form (my words not Jasser's). As Jasser also said at the time:

"They (the imams and CAIR) are unfortunately exploiting, for purely political reasons, what should be a sacred and purely spiritual story of our faith's annual holy pilgrimage to Mecca," ...

... "We need new leadership and organizations which use their passions and the bandwidth of the media to lead the ideological fight against radical and political Islam rather than this tired pre-emption of supposed discrimination."

As Gerry Nolting is quoted at The Washington Times, whose Minnesota law firm Faegre & Benson LLP is also offering to represent passengers for free, CAIR and the flying imams are using the judicial system "for intimidation purposes," and that it is "just flat wrong and needs to be strongly, strongly discouraged." Especially when as a matter of public policy, the FAA tells traveling passengers to report suspicious behavior as part of its homeland security program," and surely, if not blatantly and purposefully alarming, it was at the very least, "suspicious" Clearly, the lawsuit is, as another Minnesota lawyer says, is "a very overt attempt to intimidate people" and "coerce them into silence."

Posted by Richard at March 21, 2007 1:35 PM