Travelling with terrorists?
The CAIR, Council on American Islamic Relations, has decided to sue few passengers of an airline who complained against 6 Imans travelling with them.
Abu Sinan recalls another incident and his perspective as a non-Muslim then
When I first came to the DC area I used to take the Metro to work and to other places. I got on the train one day. I looked around and noticed two young Middle Eastern men sitting in the back of the train. They were sitting one seat in front of the other, both with backpacks. They were talking back and forth. About half way through my trip the turned away from each other and started whispering under their breath.
This caused my heart to skip a beat. What it looked like to me, as a Muslim, is that they were saying prayers under their breath. The first thing I thought was “Oh my God, these guys are praying……..are they then going to set off bombs that are in their backpacks?” This is what I thought, as a Muslim American married to an Arab. I thought they were going to blow up the train.
Update 1-
Amad points out the media bias against CAIR which lead to disapproval even from American Muslims
Sadly, many Muslims fell into the trap and started circulating e-mails asking CAIR not to sue the passengers, but only the airline. Of course, they missed the simple rule… VERIFY. Especially when it concerns your Muslim brothers and sisters or your Muslim organizations.
Brothers, I am a bit disappointed by this post. We should think ten times before we hit back on our own… in any case, I have a piece on this in defense of CAIR… to be fair, you should consider cross-posting this back to back in order to be balanced inshallah:
http://muslimmatters.org/2007/03/28/is-cair-suing-passengers-the-imams-case/
Amad,
JazakAllah khair for pointing out your post. I have update the post. I understand that the Abu Sinan’s post we linked to gave an impression that we too are against CAIR but let me assure you that we are not biased or prejudiced against any.
Br. Sharique, I didn’t mean that you were prejudiced or even Abu Sinan was prejudiced at all
Sorry if I came across like that. What I meant is that we should be careful when talking about Muslims, whether its CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, or personalities, etc. unless we have strong evidence. I am especially concerned about CAIR (note I have zero official affiliations with them, except being a general member) because of the witch-hunt that is taking place in the media quarters at the behest of the Israeli lobby. We cannot allow ourselves, even inadvertently, to become partners in crime. For Muslims Americans, CAIR is really our only REAL civil-rights organization.
waslaam.
Assalamu Alaikum Br. Amad,
But I am slowly getting acquainted with American Muslim society. I got your point regarding CAIR.
Terms like CAIR, ISNA or ICNA are alien to me