The PC police are back

CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) has been making a big stink about a recent incident where 6 imams were removed from a US Airways flight and questioned by authorities due to "suspicious activity". Apparently, the imams had been praying very loudly in the terminal, and some witnesses said they were making anti-American remarks.

CAIR immediately started bloviating about this incident, but what did they expect? Realistically, CAIR is falling into their stereotypical role as the Muslim PC police. For years, they've been jumping all over anyone guilty of committing the slightest perceived insult to Islam, and this case is no different. Their propaganda, though, especially in this case, is entirely wrong.

First off, let's be realistic: 3,000 Americans died on 9/11 at the hands of Muslim terrorists. How are we supposed to handle it when a bunch of men are being flamboyantly Muslim on an airplane? Getting them off of the plane and questioning them is not racial profiling, it's common sense. It is not discriminatory, it is a perfectly reasonable safety measure. If the 9/11 terrorists were redneck Christians, then I would have no objection to authorities pulling some redneck Christian men off of a plane for questioning if they had been praying loudly, because for them, too, it would be "suspicious behavior."

Groups like CAIR and anyone else who puts down supposed "racial profiling" seems to want people to subjugate common sense to political correctness in the name of being "tolerant" and "multicultural." But let's face it: Islamic terrorism is still a real threat to America. If these six men had been terrorists, and the authorities had done nothing, next thing we know, America would be mourning 3,000 more dead, and airport security would be sitting before some facsimile of the 9/11 committee being grilled about why they didn't do anything to stop the attack. We cannot afford this kind of double-standard when it comes to our national security. Every Muslim has the right to say his daily prayers, Muslims should exercise discretion, and realize that if you say your prayers loudly right before getting on a passenger jet, people will be suspicious.

"Tolerance" and "multiculturalism" are two-way streets. Being suspicious of Muslims who are acting suspiciously does not make any Americans racists or bigots. It is patently clear that these imams were trying to provoke a reaction, and one has to wonder why. The only conceivable reason I can think of is to make it easier for terrorists to pull off future attacks...and CAIR is complicit in helping these imams accomplish this by trying to make our security officials doubt their actions when they react to suspicious behavior. When is America going to get its act together and ban CAIR altogether? Multiculturalism is tearing Europe apart; we don't need any more of it here.

**Robert Spencer, scholar of Islamic history, theology & law, and founder of Jihad Watch sounds off here.

It's well worth reading.