We should be so lucky...

Last night I read about a group of Muslims who were escorted off a plane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (http://www.startribune.com/462/story/826056.html) after some of passengers became alarmed of their "seemingly angry" loud praying and their chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah!" while boarding the aircraft. They were taken off the plane, their luggage inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs, and the airline refused to sell them replacement tickets pending an investigation. No bombs or weapons were found. In response, Muslims are calling on their Islamic bretheren to boycott U.S. Airways.

Now maybe these Muslims were just really into their prayers. Being a little boisterous. Filled with "The Spirit," and all that. Maybe those passengers on that particular U.S. Airways flight, its flight attendants, and the pilots just completely mistook these Muslims genuinely expressing their devotion to Allah as a sign of potential violence. The evidence (or lack thereof) found certainly indicates that's the case. After all they didn't have any knives, bombs, guns or even one box-cutter among them.

But considering their behavior, I'd have kicked their asses off the plane in a New York minute.

"To practice your faith and pray is a crime in America?" asked Omar Shahin, one of the Muslim imans voted off the island.

Well, Omar, no. It's not a crime. If it were, you'd be in jail right now. However, considering America's recent history -- the last five years or so? -- how appropriate do you think it is for a group of Muslims to come onboard chanting "Allah" over and over while boarding a plane? No, we're not discriminating, we're just calling a spade a spade. When you consider that in the last twenty-five years nearly every single instance of in-flight hijacking has been the brainchild of and carried out by people of Middle Eastern decent, it ceases to be "racial profiling" and becomes "an accurate description of the possible suspects." Had you kept your religious beliefs to yourself, nobody would've bothered you. But considering they're still finding bones of 9/11 victims in NYC, your chanting and praying in Arabic made people a little uneasy. Call me crazy.

And the boycott? Please. If we could get all Muslims to stop using our airlines we could get rid of airport security altogether. And you know how many hearts that would break.