MAS Freedom Conducts Airport 'Pray-in' and Press Conference
11/22/2006 5:20:00 PM
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- On Monday, November 27th, 8:15 AM, at the US Airways ticket counter located in the Reagan National Airport, Imam Omar Shahin, one of the six Imams removed from US Airways flight 300, will join Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the MAS Freedom Foundation, Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center of Philadelphia, Rev Graylan Hagler of the United Church of Christ, Hillary Shelton, director of the NAACP-Washington National Office, and other interfaith members for a press statement, public prayer, and flight departure on US Airways.
The "pray-in" is in response to US Airways' removal of Imam Omar Shahin and five other Imams traveling from a religious leader's conference in Minnesota. Three of the Imams were observed praying prior to departure. Subsequent to boarding the plane, the six were removed from the flight, handcuffed, and detained in the airport for questioning for over five hours. Upon release, US Airways and other airlines refused to allow them to purchase tickets for other scheduled flights to Phoenix.
"The detention of these religious leaders, and the refusal of the airline to allow them travel, is a gross example of blatant Islamophobia and the violation of the civil rights of Muslim passengers", said Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
"The last time I checked, public prayer was still protected by the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion and speech. It's a shame that as an African-American and a Muslim I have the double whammy of having to worry about driving while Black and flying while Muslim. We charge the airline with not only discrimination, but with an action that is insulting and demeaning to these Muslim religious leaders, and to all people of faith."
The MAS Freedom Foundation, and many in the interfaith and civil rights community, feel strongly that in addition to religious discrimination, the issue involving the six Imams is also a religious freedom issue. We have forwarded the case to several prominent civil and constitutional rights attorneys and legal scholars.
[My Comments : Ahh yes. The familiar braying of Mahdi. And isn't it just like our eagle eyed corporate media, ever the vigilant public watchdog, to give Bray a public platform from which to posture as a spokesperson for the "peace-loving" Muslim community? Never mind his sinister associations with the dark underbelly of Islamofascist terrorism. No sir. Mr. Bray is a fine upstanding member of our immigrant community and a model "citizen". What's that you say? The MAS (aka The Muslim Brotherhood in America) is a Jihadist front organization which lends aid and support to the very terrorist groups with which we in the West are engaged in a life and death struggle? No way! That can't be OUR Mr. Bray! He's a friend of the oppressed and a lover of small dogs and children everywhere.
11/22/2006 5:20:00 PM
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- On Monday, November 27th, 8:15 AM, at the US Airways ticket counter located in the Reagan National Airport, Imam Omar Shahin, one of the six Imams removed from US Airways flight 300, will join Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the MAS Freedom Foundation, Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center of Philadelphia, Rev Graylan Hagler of the United Church of Christ, Hillary Shelton, director of the NAACP-Washington National Office, and other interfaith members for a press statement, public prayer, and flight departure on US Airways.
The "pray-in" is in response to US Airways' removal of Imam Omar Shahin and five other Imams traveling from a religious leader's conference in Minnesota. Three of the Imams were observed praying prior to departure. Subsequent to boarding the plane, the six were removed from the flight, handcuffed, and detained in the airport for questioning for over five hours. Upon release, US Airways and other airlines refused to allow them to purchase tickets for other scheduled flights to Phoenix.
"The detention of these religious leaders, and the refusal of the airline to allow them travel, is a gross example of blatant Islamophobia and the violation of the civil rights of Muslim passengers", said Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
"The last time I checked, public prayer was still protected by the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion and speech. It's a shame that as an African-American and a Muslim I have the double whammy of having to worry about driving while Black and flying while Muslim. We charge the airline with not only discrimination, but with an action that is insulting and demeaning to these Muslim religious leaders, and to all people of faith."
The MAS Freedom Foundation, and many in the interfaith and civil rights community, feel strongly that in addition to religious discrimination, the issue involving the six Imams is also a religious freedom issue. We have forwarded the case to several prominent civil and constitutional rights attorneys and legal scholars.
[My Comments : Ahh yes. The familiar braying of Mahdi. And isn't it just like our eagle eyed corporate media, ever the vigilant public watchdog, to give Bray a public platform from which to posture as a spokesperson for the "peace-loving" Muslim community? Never mind his sinister associations with the dark underbelly of Islamofascist terrorism. No sir. Mr. Bray is a fine upstanding member of our immigrant community and a model "citizen". What's that you say? The MAS (aka The Muslim Brotherhood in America) is a Jihadist front organization which lends aid and support to the very terrorist groups with which we in the West are engaged in a life and death struggle? No way! That can't be OUR Mr. Bray! He's a friend of the oppressed and a lover of small dogs and children everywhere.
Of course, all of this has already been carefully documented elsewhere. Go here to read Hugh Fitzgerald's excellent profile of Mahdi Bray. You will come away better informed about the good imam's true intentions. Or, if you (like me) want your information voluminous and footnoted, then Steve Emerson's Jihad Incorporated and American Jihad are a must read. Both books are excellent primers on how to start and manage your very own homegrown fund raising front for your favorite terrorist organization. And of course, if you're not inclined to support those nasty capitalist bookmongers over at Amazon, you can always check out either or both books at your local public library. See? It's possible to be informed and still uphold your socialist principles. Ain't America GRAND?
Of course, all of this begs the larger question. And it's the one question which probably causes most of the public to collectively scratch their puzzled noggins. Just how did Left wing clerics and the darlings of "social justice" (read: reparations for slavery) get in bed with a religion so fundamentalist, so reactionary, indeed so inimical to all of the ideals which progressives claim to believe? On the surface of it, they couldn't possibly be more polar opposite. I mean, you don't see the American Council of Churches and the NAACP falling all over themselves to join hands with evangelical Christians in support of school prayer. So what gives here?
I believe the answer is ideological rather than logical. The common thread which links these disparate groups together, as David Horowitz has so penetratingly observed, is their anti-Americanism. They all identify America in particular and Western democracy in general as 'The Great Satan' and the great oppressor of downtrodden peoples worldwide. The heroes of their faith are Pol Pot and Bin Laden, FALN and Hezbollah. The Left and the Islamofascists share one unifying ideal, a hatred of Western capitalism. Western democracies are the enemy which must be undermined and destroyed in order for "liberation" from imperialism and worldwide justice to prevail.
I believe the answer is ideological rather than logical. The common thread which links these disparate groups together, as David Horowitz has so penetratingly observed, is their anti-Americanism. They all identify America in particular and Western democracy in general as 'The Great Satan' and the great oppressor of downtrodden peoples worldwide. The heroes of their faith are Pol Pot and Bin Laden, FALN and Hezbollah. The Left and the Islamofascists share one unifying ideal, a hatred of Western capitalism. Western democracies are the enemy which must be undermined and destroyed in order for "liberation" from imperialism and worldwide justice to prevail.
And remember...as always your national media serves up the very finest in news, all carefully screened and vetted for political correctness because YOU can't handle the real truth. - Martel]
