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by Paul R. Hollrah, Lincoln Heritage Institute Senior Fellow
Monday, November 20, 2006, was a gray, cloudy day in Minneapolis, the kind of day that people in the South picture as being typical of that time of year in Minnesota, and Pauline Klemmer was on her way home to Arizona after an all-too-brief visit with family and friends in Minneapolis – all those aunts, uncles, cousins, and high school classmates who hadn’t as yet moved on to warmer climates.
Pauline’s U.S. Airways flight to Phoenix, Flight 300, was scheduled for departure at 5:15 p.m. However, assuming that the airport would be crowded with Thanksgiving week travelers, she planned her arrival at the airport for 3:45 p.m. This, she thought, would give her ample time to check her bags, get a seat assignment and boarding pass, and make her way through the long lines at the TSA airport security check.
Arriving at the airport just ahead of Pauline were six bearded men, all of apparent Middle Eastern descent. They were returning to Arizona after attending a weekend conference of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF) at the Ramada Inn Mall of America in Minneapolis.
After passing through airport security, the Imams proceeded to the departure gate where they took seats immediately behind the check-in counter. From the moment they arrived, according to reports of other passengers, the men were engaged in excited conversation, and at one point they began to chant and pray together, reminiscent of the 9/11 hijackers, causing great alarm among the other passengers.
Having stopped for a snack at a concourse restaurant, Pauline Klemmer proceeded to the gate area and took the only available seat, next to the six Imams. She noted that, while five of the six Imams spoke incessantly in Arabic, the other, identified as Dr. Omar Shahin, Director of the Islamic Center of Tucson, paced back and forth in front of her, talking on a cell phone. (The Islamic Center of Tucson was once headed by Wael Hamza Julaidan, now Director of Logistical Planning for Osama bin Laden.)
When the gate agent announced the boarding of first class passengers, all six of the Imams boarded the plane, even though only one had a first class ticket. And when they were aboard the aircraft they didn’t sit together; instead, they positioned themselves at locations throughout the plane: one in the first row of first class; one in the first row of the coach section, one half way back in the coach section; and three at the rear of the plane.
As the remainder of the passengers were boarding, the Imam seated on the first row of the first class cabin asked for a seat belt extender, as did another of the Imams seated in the rear of the aircraft. Other passengers and the flight attendants felt it was an odd request in that none of the Imams were sufficiently rotund as to require an extender – an 18-inch-long web belt that could also be used to strangle a pilot or a flight attendant.
When the seat belt extenders were delivered the Imams placed them on the floor near their feet.
As passengers expressed growing concern, a note was passed to a flight attendant. A passenger seated near the rear of the plane became concerned when he overheard the Imams use the words “terrorist” and “Allah” in their conversation, while an Arabic-speaking woman overheard them making slanderous remarks about the American people.
The highly suspicious behavior of the Imams resulted in a call to the FBI and the local police. Passengers were required to disembark, luggage was removed from the cargo hold and inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs, and the six Imams, claiming to have been “humiliated,” were required to book passage on a later flight.
The attorney for the Imams, arriving within minutes of the incident, had a message for all Americans. He said that the American people need to “get over 9/11.” Yes, perhaps. The American people were attacked once before on American soil, with terrible loss of life and property, and we’ve pretty much gotten over it…but only after we defeated the perpetrators, utterly and completely.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, local police, and the airline are now conducting thorough investigations. From what is already known, it appears that the incident was either a foiled hijack attempt, or it was a staged incident designed to create legal grounds for a lawsuit against the airline. Either way, the Imams need to pay a price for what they’ve done.
Pauline Klemmer is now safe at home with her family in Arizona after coming face-to-face with Islam. That’s as it should be. But if this is the way we can expect Islam to confront us, then Muslims had better get used to an awful lot of “humiliation” and inconvenience.
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