Yesterday I said that CAIR would try to use the imam/airplane incident to criminalize searches of Muslims in airports. And here we go: “Hearings on Profiling Sought After Imams Removed From MN Flight: DHS office of civil rights opens review of ‘flying while Muslim’ incident,” a CAIR press release:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 /U.S. Newswire/ — A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called for congressional hearings on religious and ethnic profiling at airports after six Imams, or Muslim religious leaders, were removed from a domestic flight yesterday in Minnesota.
The Imams were taken off a US Airways flight at Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport Monday night because of alleged “suspicious activity.” The Imams, who were handcuffed and questioned for several hours by authorities before being released, told the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) 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 also 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.