Apparently better to be racist than at any risk, no matter how small. Is that the ticket? Give me a break.

Take a look at this Washington Times article:

Air marshals, pilots and security officials yesterday expressed concern that airline passengers and crews will be reluctant to report suspicious behavior aboard for fear of being called “racists,” after several Muslim imams made that charge in a press conference Monday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Six imams, or Muslim holy men, accused a US Airways flight crew of inappropriately evicting them from a flight last week in Minneapolis after several passengers said the imams tried to intimidate them by loudly praying and moving around the airplane. The imams urged Congress to enact laws to prohibit ethnic and religious “profiling.”
Federal air marshals and others yesterday urged passengers to remain vigilant to threats.
“The crew and passengers act as our additional eyes and ears on every flight,” said a federal air marshal in Las Vegas, who asked that his name not be used. “If [crew and passengers] are afraid of reporting suspicious individuals out of fear of being labeled a racist or bigot, then terrorists will certainly use those fears to their advantage in future aviation attacks.”

An unnamed federal air marshal is quoted saying:

“The political correctness needs to be left at the boarding gate. Instilling politically correct fears into the minds of airline passengers is nothing less than psychological terrorism.”

The Bush Administration seems to be stepping up its efforts to anger and terrorize law-abiding citizens just trying to catch flights. Who happen to look a little different and pray a little differently than other Americans. Welcome back to second class citizenship. Why don’t we bring back Jim Crow and have all the terrorist-looking brown people sit in the back of planes, trains and buses where we can keep a closer eye on them?

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