Memphis made international news this week twice. Once for the flooding of the Mississippi River, which I detailed to you in yesterday’s post. The other news affected considerably fewer people than the flooding, but you would have thought that it was some sort of international incident.

Two Islamic religious leaders were asked to leave a commercial airliner in Memphis after the pilot refused to fly with them aboard.

Masudur Rahman and another Islamic leader had boarded their Delta Connection flight from Memphis, Tennessee, to Charlotte, North Carolina before they were unexpectedly asked to get off the plane.

The ironic thing is, the Muslim men were headed to a North American Imams conference, where the topic was Islamophobia or fears of Islam and discrimination against American Muslims.

According to  Rahman:

It’s racism and bias because of our religion and appearance and because of misinformation about our religion. If they understood Islam, they wouldn’t do this.

How can it be racism when it’s a religion comprised of people of several races?

Rahman recounted that he and Mohamed Zaghloul, both members of the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis, were cleared by the TSA and boarded the plane for an 8.40am departure.

After the plane left the gate, the pilot then announced the plane must return, per Rahman.

At that time, the men were asked to return to the boarding gate. When they got there, they were told the pilot was refusing to accept them because some other passengers could be uncomfortable.

Rahman said Delta officials conferred with the pilot for more than thirty minutes, but he still refused to fly with them aboard.

The men were escorted to a lounge and were booked on a later flight. They left for Charlotte later the same day.

According to Rahman, a Delta manager apologized for the pilot’s actions, but that he and Mr Zaghloul never met face-to-face with the pilot.

Both Muslims are Memphians. Rahman, an adjunct instructor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, was dressed in traditional Indian clothing.

Zaghloul was dressed in Arab clothing, including traditional headgear.

According to TSA spokesman, Jon Allen in Atlanta, the incident was not initiated by that agency.

A Delta Air Lines spokesman reported that the flight was operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which is also based in Atlanta.

Jarek Beem, a spokesman for Atlantic Southeast, said the incident was under investigation:

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Rahman and Zaghloul have contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the well-known and infamous Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

I’m shocked.

Per spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, the group will follow up with the airline and with the TSA to help ensure such incidents do not continue to occur.

Here’s some background information about CAIR, per discoverthenetworks.org:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) describes itself as a “non-profit, grassroots membership organization … established to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America,” to protect Muslims from hate crimes and discrimination, and to present “an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to the American public.” According to the Council’s Director of Communications, Ibrahim Hooper, “We are similar to a Muslim NAACP.” As of June 2007, CAIR claimed 32 branch affiliates in the United States and one in Canada.

CAIR was co-founded in 1994 by Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad, both of whom had close ties to the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which was established by senior Hamas operative Mousa Abu Marzook and functioned as Hamas’ public relations and recruitment arm in the United States. Awad and Ahmad previously had served, respectively, as IAP’s Public Relations Director and President. Thus it can be said that CAIR was an outgrowth of IAP.

…From its inception, CAIR has sought to portray itself as a moderate, mainstream organization, and as early as 1996 its officials became frequent guests at State Department and White House events. In the aftermath of 9/11, when the Bush administration tried to reassure American Muslims that Islam was not the target of the war on terrorism, CAIR officials were prominent among the invitees. CAIR was the main Islamic group to gain U.S. media access in the post-9/11 period, providing the “Muslim view” of the terrorist attacks and of America’s response to them. As self-acclaimed Muslim spokesmen, CAIR officials typically refused to “simplify the situation” by blaming Osama bin Laden for the attacks on America. Moreover, while they eventually were induced by journalists to condemn Palestinian suicide terror in a pro forma manner, they hedged their disavowals by describing it as an understandable response to Israeli brutality.

These are Moderate Muslims?

Why did the pilot react like that?  Because, just like the rest of Americans, he’s on edge, due to the promised retaliation by Islamic Extremists over the assassination of Osama bin Laden.

And Rightfully so.

The other thing that contributes to average Americans’ uneasiness around Muslims,  who currently comprise just 1.5 % of our population, is the deafening silence by Moderate Muslims concerning the cowardly, murderous actions of their Islamic brethren.  Instead, outspoken groups like CAIR continue to fan the flames of distrust.

Until  Moderate Muslims start speaking up and condemning Islamic Terrorism, incidents like the one in Memphis will continue.