The police report is simply a compilation of statements from the various people on and around the airplane that day and the report of the arrest itself. It in no way presumes the guilt or innocence of the men involved. There's no question the passengers were concerned about the actions of those men and without either of us being there to see things with our own eyes, we're relying on competing stories to get to the truth. There is ample evidence now to believe that their actions were overblown by paranoid passengers that allowed their imaginations to get the best of them and we'll probably see these men rewarded in a civil suit.

The bottom line though to the story is that, were these men not of the Islamic faith and of Mideastern origin, all of the actions they took that day would not have felt threatening to the passengers. I suspect that both sides in this affair were guilty of overly ramping up the emotions but the fundamental issue is of applying the rule of law and the allowance of freedom of expression differently for one group over another is just dead wrong. That practice can simply not be allowed to happen under our Constitution simply because of irrational fear.

Let me put this simply for you Tom. A takeover of an airliner in this country will never occur again now that the passengers are forwarned about the possible outcome. Whatever those Imans were doing that day to disturb the people around them was not going to result in them recreating a 9/11 scenario. I got to witness first hand an overreaction on a flight when passengers became suspicious of an Arab passenger, the great embarassment it caused him, and the shame I felt for getting sucked into the hype. In all of this, I don't blame the airline or the police by the way. I blame the public in general for allowing paranoia to overcome their common sense.

So as for your claim that Christianity is immune from acts of violence and terrorism from its fundamental core, why don't we look to the years of protracted bombings and assassinations in Northern Ireland. It really doesn't matter what the distribution is today. The potential for abuse exists equally among all groups and police have to follow the leads where they exist without regard to the religious affiliation. To imply anything differently is bigotry at its worst.

Art