Flying Imams try to add FBI agent as defendant

By Robert Spencer

The Flying Imams claim that they were taken off a flight not because they were acting suspiciously, but because they were discriminated against. They tried to sue the passengers who reported them -- which would have ended the reporting of suspicious behavior in airports and airplanes altogether -- and now they're going after an FBI agent who was involved. They're also suing several police officers.

Even if they are completely innocent, abhor terrorism, reject Islamic supremacism, and weren't doing anything but praying on that fateful flight, they should recognize that people will make honest mistakes in trying to prevent terror attacks. But by pursuing this lawsuit, they show that they're unwilling to grant that -- and the result of their suit, whether it is successful or not, will be to make it more difficult to take people off planes even when they are acting suspiciously. The only beneficiaries will be jihad terrorists. And, not coincidentally, their lawyer, Omar Mohammedi, is a CAIR op.

Isn't it funny how CAIR always seems to show up on the opposing side of any and all anti-terror efforts?

"No need to change imam's lawsuit, Metropolitan Airports Commission says: Airport board says FBI agent's role already was disclosed," by David Hanners for the Pioneer Press, October 3 (thanks to Twostellas):

The Metropolitan Airports Commission has told a judge that six Muslim imams who sued after being kicked off a flight almost two years ago shouldn't be allowed to add an FBI agent as a defendant in the case.

Lawyers for the imams claimed last week that they should be allowed to amend their suit because the FBI agent's involvement in the incident was "new evidence," but lawyers for the airports commission said that wasn't the case.

"The FBI's specific role was disclosed in the police report and in court filings, well before the deadline to amend passed," the commission argued in a document filed earlier this week.

Attorneys for both sides will argue their positions in a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.

The airports commission's co-defendant, US Airways, said in a motion this week it wasn't taking a position on the imams' request to add the FBI agent as a defendant.

The imams were kicked off a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in November 2006 after a passenger passed a note to a flight attendant saying the men had prayed loudly in Arabic and made "anti-U.S." statements.

The pilot of the Phoenix-bound flight had them removed from the plane. But attorneys for the imams are trying to determine who had the men detained, handcuffed and questioned. Five airport police officers also are named as defendants in the case.

The imams claim they were discriminated against because of their religion and because they are Middle Eastern....