Praying Imams Removed From Flight In Minneapolis

Six Imams were removed from a U.S. Airways flight Monday after a passenger became concerned over their "suspicious" activities. What was the "suspicious" activity, you ask?

......They were praying.

We have now entered a world where, if you happen to be one of the 1.2 Billion people who share a religion with 19 evil men, you will immediately be considered a terrorist and arrested. When did this happen, and better yet, why did we allow this to be so? Simple answer......President Bush's and the Republicans injection of fear into society.

Did ANYBODY even bother to gather information, such as, I don't know, ask them what they were doing? Or did the flight attendant, who received a note nonchalantly passed to her by a concerned, uninformed, close-minded passenger decide to run to the captain and get the plane landed? I'm willing to be it's the latter.

One recent contribution the current administration has made to the "see a Muslim and hide" effort was the commercial used right before the election, in which picture of UBL appeared, along with an audio recording of one of his hate-filled speeches, and the line "These are the stakes" appearing at the end (echoing Lyndon B. Johnson's "Daisy" commercial.) This commercial
was designed solely to inject fear into Americans, and remind them who was in power during 9/11, and that they should stick with them.

The Patriot Act, which many people consider unfair, and which has been used used to detain "enemy combatants" for unjust long periods of time, has also contributed to this problem. I'm sure the fact that every single Bush speech, one way or another since the War on Terror began, has mention the War on Terror.

And, while I hate to say it, it seems if anybody is going to hijack a plane and use it as a weapon, it would be a Muslim, given the history. However, the small amount of Muslims who are extremists don't even put a dent in those Muslims who are normal humans, and would do no such thing. However, this seems completely unapparent to the close-minded citizens who, as passengers on airplanes, decide that a Muslim wearing a T-shirt saying "We shall not be silenced" in Arabic is enough to get someone booted (these are the same people who believe that women who are breastfeeding their babies also deserved to get the boot.)

Sadly I must admit that the fear has even gotten to me. While flying in October of 2004, a handful of people decided to get up and use the lavatory after the 10,000-feet announcement (which is a BIG no-no.) A few of these people looked as if they either were from, or were descendants from, the Middle East. I'm sorry to say, in this world where everybody should be accepted, my heart skipped a beat. In fact, when the flight attendant made the announcement that everybody was to remain seated, these men were the first to retake their seats.

The world we live in does have it's dangers, this being apparent to the soldiers serving overseas more than anybody else. However, we need to get past our "Shoot first, ask questions later......but only if he's Arab" approach, and learn to ask questions, and learn that those in the aisle praying are thanking God for everything they have, and aren't trying to harm you, or anybody else. If a Christian, a Jew, of a Buddhist got into the aisle to pray, that person would probably be asked to return to his/her seat, but only if they were clogging up the aisle.

Muslims? Nope, they have to be detained. Thanks a bunch, Mr. President, you just turned the U.S. back to the 1950's. We'll probably need an Arab equivalent to MLK, Jr. to fix the equality problem, but unfortunately, he was detained due to the Patriot Act.

-Adam (not a Muslim, just a level-headed American)

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