Group of praying imams ordered off American flight

Last updated at 12:49 21 November 2006


Six imams, who had been saying their evening prayers on a plane, were removed from a US Airways flight yesterday and questioned for hours before being released.

The Muslim scholars were thrown off after a passenger expressed concern to flight crew. The captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane bound for Phoenix, but the men refused so police were called. "They took us off the plane, humiliated us," said Omar Shahin.

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The Muslim scholars were returning from Minneapolis where they attended a conference of the North American Imams Federation. Mr Shahin said any concerns by passengers or crew were down to ignorance about Islam.

Ibrahim Hooper, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said: "CAIR will be filing a complaint with relevant authorities to determine whether the incident was caused by anti-Muslim hysteria."

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