Something to think about.
My view: either the Imams are fundamentalists who simply enjoying taking a sweep at America and are great admirers of Bin Laden, or they were simply trying to get kicked off.
Of course there is a third possibility: plain stupidity.
Meanwhile, the AP reports:
Airport officials said Friday they will consider setting aside a private area for prayer and meditation at the request of imams concerned about the removal of six Muslim clerics from a US Airways flight last week.
Steve Wareham, director of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said other airports have “meditation rooms” used for prayers or by passengers who simply need quiet time.
A group of Somali clerics met with airport officials Friday and said they would attract less attention if they had a private area for prayer. Devout Muslims pray five times daily, facing the holy city of Mecca.
“When we pray, we don’t want a problem. We don’t want what happened last week,” said Abdulrehman Hersi, an imam at Darul-Quba mosque in Minneapolis, referring to six clerics who were barred from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis after drawing the concern of some passengers.
Airports in Nashville, Tenn.; Columbus, Ohio; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., all advertise meditation rooms. Fort Lauderdale’s is billed as “For travelers seeking a quiet time.” All note they are nonsectarian.
Here is an idea: don’t pray publicly. Of course, if airports want to create ‘rooms for prayer and meditation’ they are free to do so, but that should be done because more passengers request it: passengers from different faiths (or no particular religion at all of course). Not because certain members of certain religions feel ‘insulted’ and start demanding all kinds of things.
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