In imams' airline case, a clash of rights, prejudice, security
A lawsuit brought by six imams who were removed from a flight raises issues about other passengers voicing complaints.
from the May 1, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
They point to affidavits in the airport-police reports, in which another passenger and several crew members reported the imams changing seats and asking for seat-belt extensions. A US Airways flight attendant who was not working, but traveling on the flight, told police she thought the blind imam was "faking."
In the context of the age of terrorism, say conservative groups and others, the airline and the passengers – who are referred to as "John Does" in the suit – behaved appropriately.
"This suit is designed to harass and scare the passengers and to fire a shot across the bow for future John Doe passengers to give them serious pause before they report any suspicious behavior for fear of being dragged into a future lawsuit," says Gerry Nolting, a Minneapolis lawyer who represents one of the passengers pro bono. "My John Doe was simply performing his civic duty, and he shouldn't have this hanging over his head."
For the imams, the bottom line is that they believe that US Airways and its employees failed to make any effort to assess the validity of the complaints before taking action.
"If people are making claims that someone is chanting pro-Saddam statements, you need to authenticate the veracity of that. You shouldn't just throw them off the plane," says Mr. Iftikar of CAIR.
Some Muslim-Americans, noting the high levels of anxiety at airports, oppose the imams' decision to sue the passengers and the airline, saying the lawsuit will further inflame anti-Muslim sentiment in America.
"The political Islamist movement wants to make this about prayer, but it really isn't. They were pulled off the plane for a series of behaviors that were suspect," says M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a nonprofit group based in Phoenix. "There may have been things said about them that weren't true, but that needs to be figured out afterward. [The suit] is going to compromise our most important anti-terrorist tool – people's observations."
As the controversy has escalated, some analysts see it as a sign that Muslim-American leaders need to educate the nation more about Muslims in the US.
"In a world of terror, there's plenty to be afraid of, but you can't be afraid of 1 billion Muslims," says John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, a polling firm based in Utica, N.Y. "We can't live in a world like that."
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