And Ibrahim Hooper is thrilled. I have already posted my article containing some of this incredible exchange (thanks to PRCS for sending it in), but I thought it deserved its own thread.
MSNBC was ready for this — they have a graphic with the salient quote from Parks in the middle of this segment.
Here is the section from my article:
None of these questions about Shahin surfaced in the mainstream media. Instead, MSNBC”s Contessa Brewer compared the imams to Rosa Parks, offering a grateful Ibrahim Hooper a “defense that could be used for these imams”: the possibility that in refusing to get off the plane, as some unconfirmed reports held, the imams were engaged in an act of civil disobedience. Hooper suggested that even if this were not an act of civil disobedience, “it may come to that in the future, where people are just fed up and they say, “˜No, I am not going to be vulnerable to anybody”s stereotyping and bias, and their hysteria based on fear and prejudice, and I”m not going to give up my seat.” Boy, it”ll be interesting to see what happens in that case.” Kenneth Quinn, general counsel for the Aviation Security Administration, spoke against the appropriateness of civil disobedience on airplanes, but called the incident “regrettable” and spoke of what he called the “But For Test:” “But for the person’s religious orientation in this case, would they have taken the security procedures that they actually took? And here I think it’s questionable. We”ll have to look at all the facts, but you don’t want to single people out on unfounded fears or through racial or gender or religious bias. In the post-9/11 environment, we have to really be careful about not singling people out and taking them off of airplanes.”