CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An attorney said Tuesday that some Muslim religious leaders wearing traditional Arab garb were humiliated and embarrassed when they were wrongly kicked off two commercial flights as they sought to travel to a national conference of imams.
Two imams in Memphis, Tenn., and two in New York were headed to the Charlotte conference when they were asked to leave the planes Friday. The planes were operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines on behalf of Delta Airlines out of Memphis and American Airlines out of New York.
The imams had already passed through security at the airports before being stopped by airline personnel.
Mo Idlibi, a North Carolina attorney for the imams, said he was considering a lawsuit against the two airlines. He noted that the imams were dressed in garb that included headgear.
“They look Muslim. But when has it become a crime to fly while appearing to be Muslim? That’s not a legitimate reason for a pilot or an airline to deny a passenger the right to board a plane or remove them from an aircraft,” he said.
Idlibi said the pilot overreacted to the appearance of the men he called “respected men in their communities.”
