If anyone bothered to read the reports on this incident, to the best of my knowledge not one person refused to board the plane simply because these people prayed in the airport, nor were the imams kept from boarding. Some of the passengers who later became nervous from the imam's behavior on the plane hadn't even heard the prayers in the airport. The prayers were NOT the reason this all happened.

If their goal was to play this up for political gain, it's working like a charm.

I have seen behaviors on airplanes that bothered me. I watched someone fiddling with a cell phone that was obviously on, stand up, sit down, then stand up again, and take the phone into the bathroom. I didn't see him carrying it when he came out. Remember, cell phones aren't supposed to be on in flight. I will admit that I waited a few minutes, went back to the john, and peeked into the trash bin. Nothing. I sat down, said nothing, and forgot about it. If the phone had been in there, lit up...

Later saw him leaving the plane, talking on the phone, and was later told that many modern phone/PDAs have a mode where the cell phone portion is deactivated, and you can do things like take notes or play games. No huhu.

I believe he was Asian, but frankly, at the time, I didn't care.

Paranoid? Maybe. Still, somebody on a plane once noticed a guy trying to light a match near his shoe. It isn't paranoia if someone in fact is out to get you.

Patterns of behavior do matter.