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Feds reject imams' complaint against US Airways
Haven't exactly seen this one blaring from the national headlines today...MINNEAPOLIS The U.S. Department of Transportation says US Airways didn't discriminate against six imams when it removed them from a Phoenix-bound flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2006. Imam Omar Shahin, who ran the Islamic Center of Tucson from 2000 to 2003, was one of the men removed from a US Airways flight before it departed Minneapolis for Phoenix. They were seen praying at the airport gate, unnerving fellow passengers who complained to the pilot. Shahin was president of the Tucson Multi-Faith Alliance. He denounced Al Qaida and calls for a holy war and in 2001 stopped donations to the Holy Land Foundation after federal authorities accused that group of supporting terrorists. He was instrumental in building ties to the local Jewish community before leaving Tucson in 2003. The department's assistant general counsel, Samuel Podberesky, informed the Council on American-Islamic Relations of the department's conclusion in a Jan. 14 letter. However, the department did fault the Tempe-based carrier for refusing to book the men on another flight after the FBI cleared them. The letter is among several exhibits entered last week in a lawsuit the imams filed against the airline and the airport in federal court in Minneapolis. The trial is scheduled for August. The men claim they were discriminated against because they appeared Middle Eastern and some of them prayed before boarding the flight. Posted by: tu3031 2009-02-20 |
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