| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Feds reject imams' complaint against US Airways |
| 2009-02-20 |
| Haven't exactly seen this one blaring from the national headlines today... MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Department of Transportation says US Airways didn't discriminate against six imams when it removed them from a Phoenix-bound flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2006. Imam Omar Shahin, who ran the Islamic Center of Tucson from 2000 to 2003, was one of the men removed from a US Airways flight before it departed Minneapolis for Phoenix. They were seen praying at the airport gate, unnerving fellow passengers who complained to the pilot. Shahin was president of the Tucson Multi-Faith Alliance. He denounced Al Qaida and calls for a holy war and in 2001 stopped donations to the Holy Land Foundation after federal authorities accused that group of supporting terrorists. He was instrumental in building ties to the local Jewish community before leaving Tucson in 2003. The department's assistant general counsel, Samuel Podberesky, informed the Council on American-Islamic Relations of the department's conclusion in a Jan. 14 letter. However, the department did fault the Tempe-based carrier for refusing to book the men on another flight after the FBI cleared them. The letter is among several exhibits entered last week in a lawsuit the imams filed against the airline and the airport in federal court in Minneapolis. The trial is scheduled for August. The men claim they were discriminated against because they appeared Middle Eastern and some of them prayed before boarding the flight. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #3 Shaking head. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2009-02-20 20:55 |
| #2 Put the imans on a Continental flight to Buffalo next time. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-02-20 19:07 |
| #1 Shahin was president of the Tucson Multi-Faith Alliance. He denounced Al Qaida and calls for a holy war and in 2001 stopped donations to the Holy Land Foundation after federal authorities accused that group of supporting terrorists. He was instrumental in building ties to the local Jewish community before leaving Tucson in 2003. Not exactly. Omar Shahin, spokesman for 6 imams removed from flight, doubted Muslims were behind 9/11 and admitted ties to Osama Imams pulled off plane linked to Bin Laden A Google of Imam Omar Shahin reveals that he is the Imam of a mosque whose former director Wael Hamza Julaidan the logistics director of Bin Laden. Note surpisingly Shahin has also defended funding of Al Qaeda and is presently the youth director of the Muslim Boys Youth Group of the Islamic Center of Tucson of which his son is also a member. "Osama bin Laden was made in America. Our government was sponsoring and supporting him. We are following our government."( Omer Shahin quote from article - complete text below) |
| Posted by: ed 2009-02-20 13:05 |