Rantings of a New Yorker

Two Muslim religious leaders were removed from a Delta flight in Memphis because the pilot refused to fly with them. Officials tried to talk to the pilot for over a half an hour, but he refused to fly with the men on board.

The aircraft pulled away from the gate, but the pilot then announced the plane must return, Rahman said. When it did, the imams were asked to go back to the boarding gate where Rahman said they were told the pilot was refusing to accept them because some other passengers could be uncomfortable.

Rahman said he was dressed in traditional Indian clothing and his traveling companion was dressed in Arab garb, including traditional headgear.

These men are victims of racial profiling by the pilot and the pilot should be reprimanded. There were no complaints from passengers. The men passed through security and cleared just like every other passenger on the flight. The pilot, in his ignorance, assumed that because the men were wearing funny clothes there would be a problem. The pilot has a problem here, not these men and not the passengers.