"The Flying Imams"

No...not a high-wire act from the Middle East or a magic carpet ride.

These are the Islamic clerics ejected from a US Airways flight getting ready to depart Minneapolis for Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. Their behavior prior to and after boarding the plane raised the suspicions of passengers and crew.

The suspicious behavior is said to have included loud praying prior to boarding, taking unassigned seats in different parts of the aircraft, making comments about Al Qaida, and requesting seatbelt extensions that they did not need. The Imams were also reported to have refused to leave the plane when ordered to do so by the plane's crew and security personnel.

An Air Marshal was quoted as having described the incident as a "political correctness probe" - an attempt to evaluate the threshold of cultural tolerance aboard commercial aircraft. There have been several reported attempts by Muslims to test security measures on airliners before and after 9/11.

From my point of view, it appears, in this case, to be simply a staged disruption that could be used to criticize public concerns about the threat of Islamic terrorism. Taunting westerners seems to be a favorite tactic of Muslim activists nowadays. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), of course, has called for an 'investigation' of the incident and criticized the airline for overreacting, implying that it discriminated against Muslims.

If the Imams had been testing airline security measures, they would not have made their suspicious activities so obvious. I think they were just showing their contempt for western attitudes toward the current Islamic threat to security.

I find this type of behavior insulting to our society in general and to our culture in particular. One of my basic beliefs is "live and let live," but I don't appreciate it when people from other cultures make such arrogant asses of themselves and expect the rest of us to accept them with open arms.

I wonder if US Airways (or any airline) would be truly saddened if they were boycotted by Muslims?

Frankly, I think the airlines (and their passengers) would breathe a sigh of relief.