Muslim Leaders Kicked Off Flight

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Two Muslim religious leaders say they were removed from a commercial airliner in Memphis on Friday and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard.

Masudur Rahman, who is also an adjunct instructor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, said by telephone from the terminal at Memphis International Airport that he and another imam had already been allowed to board their Delta Connection flight to Charlotte, N.C., before they were asked to de-board.

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Jon Allen in Atlanta confirmed the incident and said it was not initiated by that agency.

A Delta Air Lines spokeswoman said the flight was operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which is also based in Atlanta. ASA didn't immediately respond to telephone calls seeking comment.

Rahman said he was dressed in traditional Indian clothing and his traveling companion was dressed in Arab garb, including traditional headgear.

Rahman said he and Mohamed Zaghloul, of the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis, were cleared by security agents and boarded the plane for an 8:40 a.m. departure.

The aircraft pulled away from the gate, but the pilot then announced the plane must return, Rahman said. When it did, the imams were asked to go back to the boarding gate where Rahman said they were told the pilot was refusing to accept them because some other passengers could be uncomfortable.

Rahman said Delta officials talked with the pilot for more than a half-hour, but he still refused.

The men were taken to a lounge and booked on a later flight.

They called the Council on Islamic-American Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

"It's racism and bias because of our religion and appearance and because of misinformation about our religion." Rahman said. "If they understood Islam, they wouldn't do this."

He said a Delta manager apologized for the pilot's actions, but that he and Zaghloul never spoke directly with the pilot.

Ibrahim Hooper, of the Islamic-American organization, said the group will follow up with the airline and with the TSA to help ensure such incidents do not continue to occur.

Hooper said airline officials at Memphis tried to resolve the situation, but the pilot refused.

Comments

[Skepticat]

04:56 PM on 05/11/2011

So the Imams were kicked off the plane - not even because an anonymous "someone" complained that they didn't dress like regular 'merkins - but because someone "might" have complained. So much for home of the brave.

[bbriani3842]

10:26 PM on 06/07/2011

Brought to you by the same policies that allow the patting-down of toddlers ....

[truesabil]

11:59 AM on 05/11/2011

There is a story about a famous poet who was invited to a dinner party by some rich aristocrats to entertain them with some of his excellent poetry. He honored their invitation for a fee. When he arrived at the door and the doorman answered, the doorman wonder who was he because the poet was looking all tacky, with clothes that was all dirty looking and torn.

The poet explain to the doorman that he was invited their to recite some poetry. He let the poet in and when he sat down at the dinner table, everyone just stared at him because of his looks. Dirty and torn looking clothes they wonder what he was going to recite. They just could not get over his looks. What the poet did was took the food on his plate and started throwing it all over his clothes.

The people at the table said; what is the meaning of this we invited you to do some poetry? So the famous poet told them, "you people don't invited people, you invite clothes."

In other words they did not see a human being like themselves, all they saw was the clothes the famous poet wore, and they made their judgments of him based upon his clothes.

[Once a Runner]

12:34 AM on 05/11/2011

Thankfully those men only had to deal with the bigoted pilot who simply removed them from the plane, had he been dealt with by some of these posters on the site I fear they would have suffered a much worse punishment.

[Minnehaha]

07:07 PM on 05/09/2011

I wonder what discipline that pilot, is facing? Diversity training coming soon to Delta! It is a shame what OBL has done to innocent, decent citizens of this country.

[RockyMissouri]

05:31 PM on 05/09/2011

THIS is the loony legacy of bin Laden...the shame. They should have gotten another pilot, rather than give in to terrorism. The ignorant pilot should have been replaced with another who had a functioning brain.

[patience1]

10:31 AM on 05/09/2011

Maybe the Pilot attended one of seminar of this hate monger. That's why he insisted not to fly them eventhough the TSA cleared them one or twice alreday.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/your_taxes_fund_anti-muslim_hatred_20110509/

[Doug Sandlin]

04:57 PM on 05/09/2011

Thanks for this.

Here's the entire 89 Page PDF, Manufacturing The Muslim Menace, that they mention in that article:
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/training/Muslim_Menace_Complete.pdf

For anyone who's interested, it's an extremely well-researched overview of the amazing amount of lies that people are making up and spreading about Muslims, including the concerted efforts to propagate these lies via training sessions for law enforcement and government personnel.

[truthupontruth]

11:20 PM on 05/10/2011

In the opening to Michael Lewis/ "The Big Short", an engaging retelling of the Credit Default Swaps triggered meltdown of 2007/08, there is a quote from Leo Tolstoy in 1897:
"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already , without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
This applies to the average American's understanding of Islam and Muslims, because of the early work done by Hollywood, the great void in the US middle and high school curriculum, and the disproportionate hysteria driven by the media. Seekers of truth and students of history will be persistent enough to separate the wheat from the chaff, but the masses have already been corralled. Sorry to mix agricultural metaphors, but "Animal Farm" and "1984" are never far from these discussions.

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

05:50 PM on 05/13/2011

I commented on the Muslim Menace pdf below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Jan_Allen_McDaniel/muslims-taken-off-flight_n_858822_88191005.html

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

05:21 PM on 05/13/2011

The article you linked to contains the rationale for two popular but erroneous narratives:


1)--“any statement critical of Islam is racist hate speech, bigotry and Islamophobia”

“You would not expect a Democratic administration to fund right-wing groups,” Thom Cincotta, a civil liberties attorney and the author of the Political Research Associates report, told me, “and yet we continue to have hard-right, Islamophobic speakers and companies being paid taxpayer dollars to promote racist doctrines that undermine U.S. national security policy concerning Islam and the Muslim world."


2)-- “the global war on terror has nothing to do with Islam”


"Policy expert after policy expert point out that framing our counterterrorism efforts as a war against Islam is a recipe for building increased resentment among Muslims, as well as a potent recruiting tool for those who would like to carry out violent attacks against us. This kind of demonizing breaks down communication between law enforcement agents and Muslim communities, which have proven to be strong allies in the rare instances of domestic extremism.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/your_taxes_fund_anti-muslim_hatred_20110509/#

The fallacy of argument 1 is obvious. If someone said the same of any large organization—the Democratic Party, for instance, it would be laughable. No religion is perfect; they all are mixtures of good ideas and bad ones.

I partly agree with argument 2. We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with the political ideology of Islamism.

[Doug Sandlin]

07:32 PM on 05/15/2011

"No religion is perfect; they all are mixtures of good ideas and bad ones."

Of course ... but the anti-Muslim groups described in that report are not engaging in criticism. They're maligning Muslims based on ideas they have concocted in their own minds, and they're promoting their bigotry as fact - in training sessions to law enforcement personnel and government employees -- and are being funded with taxpayer dollars.

For many of us, this is a very big problem.

As far as being at war not with Islam, but with the "political ideology of Islamism", the groups, and well-known anti-Muslim individuals, fail to make that distinction in their writings, website materials and training sessions, thus creation an even bigger problem.

The original report, again:

Manufacturing The Muslim Menace
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/training/Muslim_Menace_Complete.pdf

[Puncastle]

10:05 AM on 05/09/2011

I would like to respond to Jan's ridiculous post below. It appears that he is inferring if you belong to an organization that has a member, who was unindicted (innocent) in some fabricTed crime over 18 years ago, then it is perfectly acceptable to kick them off of an airplane, even if they passed two security screenings and posed absolutely no threat to the safety and security of the remaining passengers. In my opinion, trying to form a guilt by association is the definition of prejudice and bigotry.

[Doug Sandlin]

07:33 PM on 05/15/2011

I believe that rolls back to the Holy Land Foundation case, which is thoroughly debunked on p. 40 of this excellent report:

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/training/Muslim_Menace_Complete.pdf

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

12:44 AM on 05/09/2011

Background on the NAIF:

Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul-- North American Imams Federation

http://www.imamsofamerica.org/About.html

board of trustees:

Imam Johari Abdul Malik--Dar al-Hijrah Imam

Imam Siraj Wahhaj

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=716

[John Lamoreaux]

01:40 AM on 05/09/2011

The profile seems to have missed the fact that Wahhaj is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombing.

Even more disturbing Wahhaj is alleged to have been one of the two African-American converts to Islam who participated in the armed take over of the Ka'bah, with Juhayman and the Mahdi, in 1979 (new year's morning on the first day of the 15th Islamic century).

For some reason, State still refuses to release the relevant documents re Juhayman's African-American allies even now, some 40 years later.

Wahhaj, it should be noted, denies the allegation.

The other Black American fighting with Juhayman fared a bit worse than the first.

The second American never made it back to the US. His head was separated from his torso. It and 60 other heads were placed on pikes --- for a tour of the mosques of KSA. The moral: If you make us send APCs into the Ka'bah again, or shell its minarets again, or use poison gas there again, or make us again turn to French and Americans for help in cleaning up after our crazies -- this shall be your fate. So far, the pikes seem to have worked. The crazies have mostly been exported.

BTW -- one of Bin Laden's brothers also fought with Juhayman and many key ideologues in modern AQ circles see themselves as heirs of Juhayman. In a way, they are ... only worse, as they've also added takfir to the witches brew.

[ilm101]

02:58 AM on 05/09/2011

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generation­s.

But after observatio­n and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. ”

[Abdul-Halim Vazquez]

09:59 AM on 05/09/2011

Doesn't unindicted mean that there wasn't any evidence to actually indict him of a crime? Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

[Puncastle]

01:44 AM on 05/09/2011

Rather than copying web links slandering Imam Siraj Wahhaj, why don't you buy one of his DVDs to find out what his message really is. He is one of the best leaders of our time and helped clean up the streets of Brooklyn.

Start with this link:

http://meccacentric.com/siraj_wahhaj.html

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

07:59 AM on 05/09/2011

Is some particular information in the link untrue?

[truesabil]

11:53 PM on 05/08/2011

I think I will do the cross cultural dress the next time I fly. Sometimes I like to do that. I might wear african cultural dress at times, sometimes the traditional pakistani type clothing, and at other times I wear the malaysian style clothing.

I will choose the pakistani style the next time because I think thats the style that gets the most stares. I want to do that just to see how ignorantly someone will respond. And if they respond in the same way of what just happen to the 2 muslims on Delta flight, I want to see how foolish they are going to look when egg is thrown in their faces. Egg figuratively.

I say that because I am a Muslim who works for the airlines for many many years. I want to see their reaction when it becomes known that I am an airline employee.

Also, it amazes me at times when I fly because I fly a lot. It amazes me how I can be sitting next to someone and it depends on who I am sitting next to, sometimes we engages each other in conversations for the whole flight and they don't even know that they are enjoying themselves with a muslim. LOL

Don't let them bring up something about muslims or islam in the conversations, wow, I start teaching them concepts from my qur'an and they don't even know thats where I am coming from.

[John Lamoreaux]

02:00 AM on 05/09/2011

It shouldn't be too surprising that most American don't know much about Islam. Why should they? Muslims make up only 0.6% of the population of the US. Half are Sunni; half adhere to a variety of different forms of Shiism, some quite exotic. Moreover, of that number most are heavily concentrated in urban centers. Many states, it should be noted, have just a couple of mosques.

The great majority of Americans will never meet a Muslim in their lives. They will certainly meet adherents of other religions and sects, though.

If folks are going to learn about different religions, why not focus on those that have the largest numbers in the US (after Christianity). And those would be Judaism and Buddhism. SImilarly, it is perhaps even more important for Americans to learn about the various forms of Christianity other than their own.

I'm personally excited to learn about all the little religions and sects in the US. Many are fascinating. Some are quite important in other parts of the world. But the simple fact is that most people don't have the luxury that I do. For them, if they're going to invest their time learning something about someone else's religion, they ought to focus on what's of most relevance in their environment. And that would very, very seldom be Islam.

For the numbers: http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

[Puncastle]

03:28 PM on 05/09/2011

Your numbers are a bit off, primarily because you are using Pew as your source. There are actually 2 million Muslims in California, alone and about 12 mlllion Muslims in the United States, which is about 4% of the population. I disagree with your statement that most Americans would never meet a Muslim. I'm sure that many have; they just didn't realize it. When you consider that there are over 1.9 billion Muslims in the world, which is about 27% of the world population, there is a more than likely chance that any American who travels abroad will converse with a Muslim.

[RockyMissouri]

06:50 PM on 05/09/2011

Actually, there is a man from the Palestinian territories, who lives with his lovely family down the road from me- (for many years, I might add) I live in the boondocks, so to speak. He is an honorable family man and contributor to our community, and people think quite highly of him.

Every day, I learn how little I knew- the day before.

The men who flew the planes into the towers, were not Muslims, they were criminals.... just like Tim McVeigh...a criminal.

[FaceTheTruth00]

07:04 AM on 05/09/2011

If you dress like a Pakistani; the country that harbored bin Laden for years, and you can't understand why that would upset people, well what more is there to say?

Except that while you're trying to make a point, you're intentionally hoping to terrorize people who were victims of that so-called "ally" who stabbed us in the back.

Good call.

[truesabil]

11:40 AM on 05/09/2011

Excellent call, because this is a country that boast of the freedom to express ourselves. If someone clothes terrorizes you then you need to see a therapist. I insist on living the life that G-d created me for, He created me for freedom. You talk the talk of freedom as long as its your idea of freedom but when someone else chooses to exercise that same right to be free but different from your idea of freedom you sound like a hypocrite.

Mostly likely you are one of those who don't see any problem with those who want to ridicule my prophet or the racist southern cracker preacher in Florida who wants to burn our qur'ans. I bet you did not have a problem with him doing that "intentionally"?

[truesabil]

08:08 PM on 05/09/2011

And what about the Pakistani who have been dressing the way he dresses all of his natural borne life? You are saying he must abort his identity and accept the european identity and look.

Bad Call!

[truthupontruth]

08:21 PM on 05/08/2011

The pilot is an idiot. If he only knew how many Muslims there were in Memphis, specifically the ones who worship right next door the the Heartsong Church. Here they are celebrating Thanksgiving together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNVooOqDF5k
The pilot has undoubtedly transported hundreds of Muslims before, if he's been working in America. And 19 customers on Sept 11 were outfitted in jeans and tshirts, so his observation that Islamic garb represents a threat is ludicrous. It is more likely that he is a bigot that doesn't want to do anything for people that he feels are subhuman.
Delta, you say? I know a Muslim who is an airplane mechanic (I forget the proper technical title) but he is responsible for engine maintenance, and part of his job is testing the planes by running them up and down the runways. And he worked for Delta for years. So it is entirely possible that the plane was already piloted by a Muslim. How do ya like them apples?

[Seven Teenatheart]

10:15 PM on 05/08/2011

I love it!

[Angry Cloud]

10:42 PM on 05/08/2011

How the heck did so many of them manage to infest Memphis?

[Doug Sandlin]

11:04 PM on 05/08/2011

Bigoted Pilots?

Who knows - but here's hoping they're eradicated soon -- what a scourge on society!!

[Steve Rotert]

11:39 PM on 05/08/2011

Thank you AC

[Cut My Taxes]

02:37 PM on 05/08/2011

My plane, My rules !

[MohammedAbbasi]

03:52 PM on 05/08/2011

Tealiban?

[Red State Blues]

07:19 AM on 05/10/2011

Your country, your court costs.

[Cut My Taxes]

08:38 AM on 05/10/2011

If the pilot does not feel comfortable with someone on his flight it is his right at his sole discresion to request that person to be asked to deplane. Sometimes people have a sixth sence about something that may not make sence to you, but it is real. I'm sure this pilot has flown many different people before without a hitch, but this time something didn't feel right and he went with his gut feelings, nothing more, nothing less.

[Art Vandalay]

12:44 PM on 05/08/2011

The name of the pilot was Juan Williams...

[karen joseph]

09:22 AM on 05/08/2011

I smell a lawsuit. Delta will have to answer for supporting the pilot after they'd been cleared by TSA. They should have replaced the pilot.

[Cut My Taxes]

02:38 PM on 05/08/2011

Do you know how long that would take ?

[RockyMissouri]

07:04 PM on 05/09/2011

Yes, they should have..

[Puncastle]

04:23 AM on 05/08/2011

I-R-O-N-Y: The two men who were kicked off of the airplane were flying to an Anti-Prejudice Conference. You can't make this stuff up.

[Doug Sandlin]

10:14 PM on 05/08/2011

Wow.

Indeed (you can't make this stuff up.)

Faved.

That's almost as good (in the highly-ironic sense of the term) as Shahrukh Khan (the most popular movie star in the world), being detained at Newark Airport, "on suspicion of being Muslim", while traveling to the U.S. to promote this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOTXj2FyRus

[Steve Rotert]

11:46 PM on 05/08/2011

I-R-O-N-Y? A muslim American who was the spokesman for a group to improve islamic and American relations beheaded his two teenage daughters for becoming too "westernized" last year in this country, then called 911 and bragged that he committed an "Honor Killing". That my friend is I-R-O-N-Y!

[Puncastle]

01:39 AM on 05/09/2011

I didn't realize we were playing the IRONY game regarding issues unrelated to this article. Ok, so I guess it's my turn. The U.S. claimed that it invaded Iraq to liberate the Iraqi people, yet they have already killed Saddam Hussein, but have brought more deaths, oppression, homelessness and human suffering to the Iraqi people than Saddam Hussein ever did. Now that is I-R-O-N-Y. Ok, your turn.

[RockyMissouri]

07:14 PM on 05/09/2011

That man was sick. Unfortunately, plenty of non-Muslims kill their children all over America .....other than having a hatred for Islam, did you actually have a point?

[wittyprof]

12:49 AM on 05/08/2011

So when will the name of the bigoted, ignorant pilot be released and when will he be fired from the airline?

Just imagine the outrage if say a pilot for British Air had decided to pull two Catholic priests off a plane leaving Belfast...

[Anthony Lucci]

08:41 AM on 05/08/2011

The pilot isnt a bigot. If the Imam's were smart, they would've worn jeans. I dont want to fly with Muslims that wear all the garb either.

[Bufford P Tusser]

01:23 PM on 05/08/2011

walk

[jerryengelbach]

07:02 PM on 05/08/2011

You and the pilots are both bigots.

[RockyMissouri]

07:22 PM on 05/09/2011

Just imagine....!