Let's just do a quick assumption here Tom on exactly who the eyewitnesses to this deed were. Given the standard distribution of race, religion, and culture in most airports in America, I'd say it's safe to say the vast majority of the people surrounding these imans and viewing their actions were your typical WASPs or WASC's (Catholics). I'd also say that of those people, quite a few would tend to fall into the category of knowing very clearly the events of 9/11 and still harboring some fear and resentment of that act.

I understand you're a facts and figures kind of guy and could care less about the human element to any story but humor me here for a bit and let's just say that with those factors, just about anything a person of Arabic origin does that is a bit out of the ordinary for what a typical white Christian American sees in their daily life, might likely create some unease in those people. If you can accept that premise then I'd like a justification as to why the change has to occur only in the Islamic passengers and there is no equal responsibility in the nervous passengers to grow a bit thicker skin and deal with their own paranoia.

Somehow your post reeks of requiring accomodation only from the Muslims because more of their flock has erred than the typical white Christian American. Somehow your mind has gone immediately to the point where these imans knowingly created their own bad situation and are excusing completely the overreaction of the people that freaked out. What you're insinuating thus is that Arabic people need not only to be good citizens and not blow up planes but also somehow stay in the closet in regard to their faith and actions and go out of their way not to scare the "good" people. I'd love to see you craft a law that spelled that out in legal terms.

I'm against them pulling your wheelchair bound Grandma out to search her for box cutters but I don't know any legitimate way of calculating just who in a line is a potential terrorist and who's not just from their suspected heritage. I'd dare you to look into a line at an airport and pull 3 or 4 guys from it and come up with any justification why they'd be any more of a threat to you than others you might have ignored.

I don't know if these imans knowingly and intentionally worried the other passengers by their actions or they were just clueless. As far as I know, none of them have ever manipulated a system before in this manner. I can tell you however that I've seen firsthand an entire plane become scared over a completely innocent fellow passenger with Mideastern features because someone thought they heard him say suspicious things on his cell phone in the terminal.

Truth is, you have no clue either what created the situation that day. Neither of us were there to see it ourselves. Police report be damned Tom. Just remember that when some drunken redneck wakes up in the forest somewhere and goes to the cops telling them he was abducted by aliens and anal probed, that information shows up in the report. Doesn't make it so.

Art