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AMP Report - November 21, 2006
Hearings on profiling sought after
imams removed from flight
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have called for congressional hearings on religious and ethnic profiling at airports after six Imams, or Muslim religious leaders, were removed from a domestic flight on Sept. 19th in Minnesota.
The men were returning home from Minneapolis after a three-day North American Imams Federation (NAIF) Conference. Before boarding the flight, three of the six men went to a corner at the gate to perform obligatory prayers, one of the five pillars of Islam and a constitutionally protected right. After boarding the plane, two of the men requested seat belt extensions. To request seat belt extensions is not only a routine practice, but is intended to ensure the comfort of passengers.
The Imams were taken off a US Airways flight because of alleged "suspicious activity." The Imams, who were handcuffed and questioned for several hours by authorities before being released, said they suspect the activity cited by authorities was the performance of normal evening prayers offered by members of the group in the airport before boarding the flight.
The detained Imams denied reports that they refused to leave the plane or that they chanted "Allah" as they were escorted from the flight. US Airways refused to allow the Imams to take another flight or to assist them in obtaining tickets on another airline. They eventually obtained tickets on Northwest Airlines and are on their way to Arizona.
Among the group was NAIF President Omar Shahin, an American citizen and Imam in Arizona for the last 30 years, said that "this was humiliating, and the worst moment of my life."
Shahin said that he and his five colleagues, including a blind man, were made to line up 10 feet apart in the airport terminal before hundreds of others passengers waiting for other flights. They were then handcuffed and led to separate rooms where they were detained for nearly three hours. Shahin said an FBI agent then arrived and spoke to him for less than 20 minutes before he apologize for the "misunderstanding" and said he was free to go. The other five imams were similarly released without charge.
At a Capitol Hill news conference, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said on Nov. 21st that security concerns are of "paramount importance," but that the incident in Minnesota was apparently triggered by prejudice and ignorance, not by real evidence of a threat to passenger safety:
"CAIR is receiving more reports of 'flying while Muslim' and racial profiling incidents from members of the Islamic community nationwide. We therefore call for congressional hearings to deal with the issue of racial, religious and ethnic profiling in our nation's airports.
"We also call on the Department of Justice and the Transportation Security Administration to conduct thorough investigations into the incident in Minnesota and to ensure that security procedures of US Airways and other airlines conform to constitutional standards mandating the protection of religious freedom and other civil rights."
Awad said CAIR would be seeking a meeting with US Airways officials to discuss the Minnesota incident and past complaints against the airline by members of the American Muslim community.
He added that CAIR received a letter today from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties saying it has opened a review of the case as it relates to the actions of DHS employees.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Hilary Shelton, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Washington Bureau, said in a statement:
"The NAACP is deeply concerned with the most recent incident of Arab-Americans being removed from an airplane in Minneapolis after they prayed. As much as all Americans are concerned with the threat of terrorism and the security of our nation, for law-abiding Americans to be abused and removed from the plane is deeply disturbing.
"This matter is unfortunately consistent with the experience of African-Americans who have been detained while simply traveling on our nation's highways, flyways and sidewalks. We encourage a thorough investigation into the matter and call for the passing of the End Racial Profiling Act, which is currently pending in Congress."
Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
Imam Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said "The detention of these religious leaders, and the refusal of the airline to allow them travel, is a gross example of blatant Islamophobia and the violation of the civil rights of Muslim passengers”
"The last time I checked, public prayer was still protected by the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion and speech. It's a shame that as an African-American and a Muslim I have the double whammy of having to worry about driving while Black and flying while Muslim. We charge the airline with not only discrimination, but with an action that is insulting and demeaning to these Muslim religious leaders, and to All people of faith."
The Muslim Public Affairs Council
The Muslim Public Affairs Council requested a meeting with Department of Treasury Secretary Mary Peters and called for a review by the Department Of Transport's Office of Civil Rights on US Airways' possible violation of the passengers' civil rights because of their religious and ethnic background.
In the letter to Secretary Peters, MPAC Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati wrote:
"While we are all obligated to do our utmost in reporting criminal activity to the authorities, we are also concerned that misplaced fear and suspicion will gridlock our justice system if we cannot distinguish normal behavior from criminal behavior.... We believe the actions of US Airways personnel should be thoroughly investigated and that corrective measures should be taken to remind the airlines of their obligation to serve all Americans and not to conduct profiling based on religious, ethnic or racial backgrounds."
"Flying while Muslim"
The Associated Press said that the police report listed the incident as "Security-Other," but some saw the detention of six imams at the airport here as a case of "Flying while Muslim" - the idea that Muslims come in for extra scrutiny when they fly.
It was just the latest incident in which passengers who were Muslim or, in some cases, just not Caucasian were removed from a flight for questioning. In August, a flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai was escorted back to the airport by F-16 fighters because a group of Indians on the plane had a large number of cell phones, notebook computers and hard drives, and refused to follow the crew's instructions.
"In this country, there was a time that Catholics were profiled, and they were stereotyped and discriminated (against), and Jewish people," said Dr. Shahid Athar, a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, who also writes and lectures on Muslim interaction in the West. "It looks like it is our turn now."
The police report said the flight's captain had already decided he wanted the men off the plane after the passenger passed him a note pointing out "suspicious Arabic men."
An airport police officer and a Federal Air Marshal agreed the combination of circumstances was suspicious, and eventually asked the men to leave the airplane, according to the police report. The report said they got off the plane without incident.
"The police came and take us off the plane in front of all the passengers in a very humiliating way," Shahin said. "I never felt bad in my life like yesterday. It was the worst moment in my life when I see six imams, six leaders in this community, humiliated."
The Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties said it had opened an investigation. It also said the department will coordinate with other government agencies with the authority to review the conduct of airline and other government employees.
Uproar follows imams' detention
Minniapolis Star Tribune said the removal of six Muslim clerics from a US Airways flight from the Twin Cities set off a nationwide uproar.
From now on, Omar Shahin won't be praying at the airport while waiting for a flight. "This was humiliating, the worst moment of my life," Shahin said told the paper, a day after he and five fellow Muslim imams were escorted off a US Airways jet at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
"To practice your faith and pray is a crime in America?" he said.
The incident set off a nationwide uproar, and the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties said it will review the incident.
Locally, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas and the Somali Justice Advocacy Center questioned the detention.
Bushra Khan, spokeswoman for CAIR's Arizona chapter, said, "All these men did was pray, and it was misunderstood. The bottom line is that they were Middle Eastern-looking men ... and that scares some people."
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