Muslims Seek Prayer Rooms at US Airports (AP) —
Airport officials said Friday they will consider setting aside a private area for prayer and meditation at the request of imams concerned about the removal of six Muslim clerics from a US Airways flight last week.Steve Wareham, director of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said other airports have “meditation rooms” used for prayers or by passengers who simply need quiet time.
A group of Somali clerics met with airport officials Friday and said they would attract less attention if they had a private area for prayer. Devout Muslims pray five times daily, facing the holy city of Mecca.
Give it to em. Putting them all in one place makes it easier to track and profile. That is of course if we have the collective will to monitor Muslims while they’re in prayer.
However, if we lack the courage to break those PC lines, Muslims will have a private place to do all the weird stuff that got these 6 Imams kicked off of their flight. That incident also took place at Minneapolis-St.Paul, which has become an unlikely battleground in the war on terror.
It takes more than a little chutzpah to say, “look how devout I am, now accommodate my piety.” Security means inconveniences. Piety isn’t supposed to be convenient and it’s rank hypocrisy to demand that others to bend over backwards so *you* can be holy.
If they need a private place to pray they can find it outside the secured areas. It might mean they’ll need longer layovers, but I’m sure Allah will recognize their devotion and suffering.
Pffft. Many, many airports already have “meditation” rooms. (for example I know for a fact that Tulsa and Seattle have them, because I’ve napped there!) It’s not that Minneapolis airport getting one is giving in to the Muslims, it’s that the US already enables people who are so nuts that they absolutely have to have a private place to pray incorporated into a very public building.
Like I tell the kids before a car trip, “Do it before you leave the house!”
I travel quite a bit for work and most major airports have a non-denominational chapel. No need to spend any more of my tax dollars appeasing these whiners.
Would it be tax dollars that funded the rooms?
Of course, they will also want to use the public address system five times a day, to call the faithful to prayers.
Remember we cannot have religion in schools, Christmas scenes on City property, but by gerge we can Islamic prayer rooms…. what crap.