Posted on 12/06/2006 4:00:54 AM PST by rlmorel
On a Wing and a Prayer Grievance theater at Minneapolis International Airport.
BY DEBRA BURLINGAME Wednesday, December 6, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Those are the words that started it all. Six bearded imams are said to have shouted them out while offering evening prayers as they and 141 other passengers waited at the gate for their flight out of Minneapolis International Airport. It was three days before Thanksgiving. Allahu Akbar: God is great.
Initial media reports of the incident did not include the disturbing details about what happened after they boarded US Airways flight 300, but the story quickly went national with provocative headlines: "Six Muslims Ejected from US Air Flight for Praying." Yes, they were praying--but let's be clear about this. The very last human sound on the cockpit voice recorder of United flight 93 before it screamed into the ground at 580 miles per hour is the sound of male voices shouting "Allahu Akbar" in a moment of religious ecstasy.
They, too, were praying. The passengers and crew of flight 93 lost their valiant fight to take back the plane just one hour and 20 minutes after it pushed back from the gate. Until the hijackers stormed the cockpit door, they were just a handful of Middle Eastern-looking men on their way to sunny California. So, yes, let's be exceedingly clear about the whole matter. Some 3,000 men, women and children are dead because the unassuming people on those airplanes did not look at them and see murderers. Or dangerous Arabs. Or fanatical Muslims. They saw a few guys in chinos.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
I wrote an email to US Airways praising them for their actions and letting them know I support them. I got back a troubling, politically correct email:
Dear Valued Customer:
Thank you for taking the time to contact Customer Relations at US Airways. Your comments and perception of US Airways are very important to us.
We are aware of the situation involving six customers on US Airways Flight 300 from Minneapolis to Phoenix on the evening of November 20th, and are diligently conducting our own investigation. We are debriefing crewmembers and ground personnel as well as working with local law enforcement. We will cooperate fully with all of the appropriate law enforcement officials to determine the facts surrounding this incident.
We are always concerned when passengers are inconvenienced and especially concerned when a situation occurs which causes customers to feel their dignity was compromised. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind and will continue to exhaust our internal investigation until we know the facts of this case and can provide answers for the employees and customers involved.
Thank you for sharing your comments and allowing us the opportunity to explain our position.
I know why they had to write it, and it does sound like they are supporting their flight personnel, so this email may be misleading.
(BTW...I apologize if this has already been posted, I did multiple keyword searches and came up with nothing)
don't know if you saw on another threat that Debra Burlingame's niece, daughter of her brother who was killed on 9/11, at 31 was killed yesterday in a suspicious apartment fire in NJ. Just too tragic.
They had to write that email that way. That's no big deal. The proof of the pudding will be in their ultimate response. If they essentially do nothing, then we know they are the good guys. If they start instituting a bunch of save-the-terrorist PC "safe-guards", then we know they caved. Corporations are so quick to cave these days that I'm encouraged by the fact that they haven't caved yet. But I remain somewhat pessimistic. Corporations these days are so burdened by humanities majors who are just itching in their shorts to cave that caving is always a possibility. They could still cave yet.
So, we all know this whole flying Imam flap was a a put-up job from the git-go.
Now what do we do?
Do we let the courts pretend that they have a legitimate grievance? Do we let the PC thugs paper over their clearly anti-American intent?
The American people want to go along and get along, more than anything in the World. We will gladly hold the knife to our own throat in return for a specious promise of peace and goodwill.
See also: http://www.powerlineblog.com/
And....... http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=250126364574564
I hope they tie Ellison to this stunt. If he's playing politics with airline security, he's playing with fire!
It would be sweet to have this jackass slapped down before he even takes his seat. I hope the voters of his district are happy with their choice.
The voters in his district are too bleepin' stupid to realize what they have done.
Shamefully the MSM is ignoring this story ... or, worse, promoting "both sides."
Put-up job or not, their actions, in and of themselves, were acts of terrorism and they should be prosecuted accordingly.
Highly unlikely that will happen, but it should.
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