Six imams removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to
Phoenix are calling on Muslims to boycott the airline. If only we
could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with
airport security altogether.
Witnesses said the imams stood to do their evening prayers in
the terminal before boarding, chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah" --
coincidentally, the last words heard by hundreds of airline
passengers on 9/11 before they died.
Witnesses also said that the imams were talking about Saddam
Hussein, and denouncing America and the war in Iraq. About the
only scary preflight ritual the imams didn't perform was the
signing of last wills and testaments.
After boarding, the imams did not sit together and some asked
for seat belt extensions, although none were morbidly obese.
Three of the men had one-way tickets and no checked baggage.
Also they were Muslims.
The idea that a Muslim boycott against US Airways would hurt
the airline proves that Arabs are utterly tone-deaf. This is
roughly the equivalent of Cindy Sheehan taking a vow of silence.
How can we hope to deal with people with no sense of irony? The
next thing you know, New York City cab drivers will be
threatening to bathe.
Come to think of it, the whole affair may have been a madcap
advertising scheme cooked up by US Airways.
It worked with me. US Airways is my official airline now.
Northwest, which eventually flew the Allah-spouting Muslims to
their destinations, is off my list. You want to really hurt a
U.S. air carrier's business? Have Muslims announce that it's
their favorite airline.
The clerics had been attending an imam conference in
Minneapolis (imam conference slogan: "What Happens in Minneapolis
-- Actually, Nothing Happened in Minneapolis"). But instead of
investigating the conference, the government is now investigating
my favorite airline.
What threat could Muslims flying from Minnesota to Arizona
be?
Three of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 received their flight
training in Arizona. Long before the attacks, an FBI agent in
Phoenix found it curious that so many Arabs were enrolled in
flight school. But the FBI rebuffed his request for an
investigation on the grounds that his suspicions were based on
the same invidious racial profiling that has brought US Airways
under investigation and into my good graces.
Lynne Stewart's client, the Blind Sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, is
serving life in prison in a maximum security lock-up in
Minnesota. One of the six imams removed from the US Airways plane
was blind, so Lynne Stewart was the one missing clue that would
have sent all the passengers screaming from the plane. Continued... |