Last night, a pair of Muslim clerics from Memphis were on their way to a conference in Charlotte when the pilot ordered them off the plane.
Imams Masudur Rahman, an adjunct professor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, and Mohamed Zaghloul said they and their bags were checked twice by security agents at the Memphis airport before boarding the 8:40 a.m. Delta Connection Flight 5452 to Charlotte.
Rahman said the plane left the gate and was taxiing to the runway when the pilot came over the intercom.
"The pilot said: 'There is an issue. We need to return to the gate,'" Rahman said.
The flight was operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, flying as Delta Connection. Ironically, Rahman and Zaghloul were on their way to a conference on combatting Islamophobia.
Rahman said that a Delta official told Zaghloul and himself that the pilot and some passengers were concerned about them being on the plane. Never mind that the TSA checked their bags twice. Unless there's something I haven't heard or haven't seen yet, it looks like the only "concern" was that Rahman and Zaghloul were wearing Muslim garb. If that's the case, Delta's got a lot of explaining and apologizing to do.
According to the (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, Delta not only apologized to the clerics, but put them on a later Delta flight to Charlotte. This flight went without incident, though they were late for the conference's opening activities.
Rahman bluntly called this a case of racism--and with good reason. Unless there's more to this than we've seen so far, Delta really doesn't have a leg to stand on--and that pilot needs to be fired, or at the very least is in need of some refresher sensitivity training.
Update: According to Charlotte CBS affiliate WBTV, the area U.S. Attorney has already been contacted, so Delta and Atlantic Southeast may very well have to answer for this in court. (h/t to ThinkProgress and gchaucer2)
Update #2: Since this made the rec list, I thought I'd see what the wingers have to say about this. Crickets so far at RedState, but the Freepers are predictably applauding the pilot.