BCT Editorial – 11/27/06

This page was last updated on November 27, 2006.

Fear of flying; Editorial; Beaver County Times; November 27, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Muslims should be free to pray anywhere they choose, including airports

[RWC] As you will learn, the subject incident wasn’t about the freedom of Muslims to pray. By the way, no one is “free to pray anywhere they choose.” For example, has the Times forgotten prayers are not allowed at school graduations, et cetera?

“Picture yourself in an airport somewhere in the United States.

“You’re preparing to get on an airplane, and maybe you’re a little nervous about flying, so you pray for a safe trip.

“If you’re a Catholic, you might be holding a rosary, which is visible to other passengers. If you’re part of a group, the entire group might hold hands and pray while other passengers pass by. You might kneel and say your prayer in plain view of others.

“No big deal, right? Travelers do it every day. They pray for safe passage and good weather and for the safety of their families while they are away.”

[RWC] “Travelers do it every day?” I flew quite a bit before I retired and I never saw anyone – regardless of religion – “kneel and say [their] prayer in plain view of others” in an airport terminal.

“Now imagine yourself a Muslim in the same situation.”

[RWC] Here’s a quick quiz. How many Catholics have hijacked commercial airplanes and used them as weapons to kill about 3,000 Americans?

“After you pray and get on the airplane, the authorities show up and drag you away. They delay the flight while questioning you for hours. When finally released, you can’t get back on the airplane. Worse, the airline refuses to sell you a ticket for another flight.”

[RWC] Note the lack of concern for the inconvenience endured by the other 140 passengers and crewmembers because of the three-hour delay. In addition, all of the other passengers and crewmembers had to leave the plane and be re-screened.

“You’re stranded far from home, and nobody cares, not the airline, not the authorities and certainly not your fellow passengers, who wanted you removed in the first place.”

[RWC] “[S]tranded?” Not exactly. The imams had no problem getting tickets from Northwest Airlines.

“Is this your vision of America?

“It’s reality for Muslims.

“The nightmare that played out in Minneapolis last week should be a wake-up call for all Americans.

“Six Muslim clerics bound for Phoenix were removed from a US Airways flight after a passenger observed several of them praying in the terminal and passed a note to a flight attendant, who notified security.”

[RWC] Based on a copy of the note shown in The New York Times, the note said nothing about the men praying in the terminal. The note said, “6 Suspicious Arabic men on plane, spread out in their seats. All were together saying, ‘… Allah … Allah …’ cursing U.S. involvement w/Saddam before flight. 1 in front exit row, another in first row 1^st class, another in 8D, another in 22D, two in 25 E&F.”

“Police yanked the men off the plane and questioned them for hours, learning that the six were in Minneapolis to attend a conference of the North American Imams Federation.

“They were released and spent the night at the home of a local imam.

“When one of them returned to the airport the following day, he reported that a US Airways ticketing agent refused to sell him or the other five imams another ticket.

“All of this happened after the federation took pains in advance to notify local police and the FBI about their conference.

“This is not the way it’s supposed to work in America, which prides itself as a place where citizens are free to practice religion, whether they be Muslims, or Buddhists, or Taoists, or Jews, or they belong to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart of Jesus located somewhere in Los Angeles, Calif.”

[RWC] Varying my question from above, how many “Buddhists, or Taoists, or Jews, or [members of] the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart of Jesus” have hijacked commercial airplanes and used them as weapons to kill about 3,000 Americans?

“With all of the information that has flowed over the past five years, we Americans still think Muslim is another word for terrorist. We’re still ignorant about Islam. We still fear the Quran.”

[RWC] What “information that has flowed over the past five years?” All we get is the “most Muslims aren’t terrorists” and “Islam is a religion of peace” admonishments. The Times is a newspaper, yet what has it done to inform us about Islam aside from politically correct comments? Since September, there’s been an editorial telling us we should not refer to Islamofascism and then another pointing out angry Muslims murdered an innocent nun in Somalia.

Over the last couple of weeks I saw two shows – one on CNN Headline News and the other on Fox News Channel – about what Muslims in the Middle East say their goal is. These programs showed what Muslims were saying on the U.S. equivalent of national TV broadcasts. Frankly, I wasn’t surprised at the hatred, but it was worth seeing. What surprised me was the indoctrination of Muslim children. Watching kids ranging in age from three and a half to 10 years old spew pure hate was shocking. Though I’m sure they didn’t appreciate their words, some of these kids were exhorting fellow children to become “martyrs for Allah.” How can the vast majority of these kids grow up to be anything but terrorists?

The shows also demonstrated the two-faced nature of some Muslim leaders. In one example, a Muslim leader in the U.S. said during an interview he and all Muslims denounced terrorism in general, and the 9/11 attacks specifically. Only two years later the same man was videotaped praising “The Magnificent 19” at a 9/11 anniversary “party.” The 19 men to whom the man referred were the 19 hijackers on 9/11.

There are about 1.2 billion Muslims. Estimates vary from 5% to 15% about the number who practice so-called “radical Islam.” That’s a range from 60,000,000 to 180,000,000. That’s anywhere from 60 million to 180 million people who want to kill or subjugate all non-Muslims and those Muslims “not Muslim enough.” These figures exclude Muslims who simply hate the U.S. and the rest of Western civilization.

“It’s time to face facts.”

[RWC] As you’ll read below, the Times isn’t interested in facts, unless reading the facts requires your head to be buried in the sand.

“There are 6 to 7 million Muslims living in America today. Practicing Muslims are obligated to pray five times daily, in plain view if necessary. Those prayers do not signal an impending terrorist act.”

[RWC] Actually, there’s a fatwa that allows traveling Muslims to combine their prayers so they are not “obligated to pray five times daily.”

“Think about that the next time you bow your head in an airport. Then imagine the authorities coming after you.”

[RWC] This was a real tearjerker, wasn’t it? Here’s the problem; an editorial that told us “[I]t’s time to face facts” saw fit to omit a few facts.

First, it wasn’t one single thing that led to the imams’ removal from the plane. It was a bunch of things that made the men look suspicious. As with a lot about this incident, reports from various sources tend to vary a bit. Here’s what I’ve been able to assemble about the incident.

· The imams were Middle Eastern looking. We’re not talking about Swedish-looking men or Irish Catholic priests just off the plane from County Cork.

· The men spoke in Arabic.

· Though the imams were traveling together, they were spread throughout the plane, including one man in the first row of 1^st class near the cockpit and another in an exit row next to an emergency door.

· One of the group requested a seat belt extension, though a flight attendant said the man didn’t need one.

· One AP report said three of the imams stood up and did their praying on the plane, not in the terminal.

· One AP report said three of the men had one-way tickets and checked no luggage.

· As noted above, the imams were overheard “cursing U.S. involvement w/Saddam before [the] flight.”

Any one or maybe two of these things likely wouldn’t have resulted in the imams’ removal but, taken as a group, the airplane crew and airport security personnel would have been irresponsible if they ignored these potential signs of trouble.

Oh, and here are a couple of things the airplane crew and airport security personnel didn’t know.

First, according to The Arizona Republic, the leader of the group, Omar Shahin, back in 2001 conceded the Tucson mosque with which he was associated helped Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s when he was a “freedom fighter.”¹ There’s one problem with this statement. If bin Laden could ever be labeled a “freedom fighter,” that ended when the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989. By his own words, Mr. Shahin’s mosque was still supporting bin Laden in the 1990s.

Second, well after the identities of the 9/11 hijackers had been confirmed, Mr. Shahin continued to assert the hijackers were not Muslims. According to The Arizona Republic, “Shahin of the Tucson Islamic Center said more than 1,200 Muslims died in the World Trade Center catastrophe, and no genuine member of Islam would do such a thing. Nor, he added, would Muslims have gone to strip joints prior to the attack, as several of the terrorists in Florida reportedly did. As for Al-Qaeda nests in America, Shahin said, ‘All of these, they make it up.’”¹ “[M]ore than 1,200 Muslims died in the World Trade Center” attack? What a load of hooey! Sounds like a guy trying to make Muslims look like the victims.

Finally, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the whole thing was staged to get the reaction it did.

1. Arizona Was Home to bin Laden “Sleeper Cell”; Dennis Wagner and Tom Zoellner; The Arizona Republic; September 28, 2001.