By David Hanners
Lawyers for six Muslim prayer leaders removed from a US Airways jet at Twin Cities International Airport in 2006 told a federal magistrate Monday that they want the airline to divulge 10 years' worth of discrimination complaints so they could compare the airline's behavior before and after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Attorneys representing the airline argued they should have to turn over just three years' worth of such data. The reason, said one: 9/11 changed everything.
"The bottom line is we're in a post-9/11 world," US Airways attorney Dane Jaques told U.S. Magistrate Arthur Boylan. "Procedures changed. The world changed. So much changed after 9/11."
But Omar Mohammedi, a lawyer representing the six imams, argued that the information was crucial to the plaintiffs' claim that they were victims of racial profiling, discriminated against because they were Muslims of Middle Eastern descent.
"We know with 9/11 came discrimination," he told the judge. "We want to see what the situation was before 9/11, compared to after 9/11." Read more ...
Lawyers for six Muslim prayer leaders removed from a US Airways jet at Twin Cities International Airport in 2006 told a federal magistrate Monday that they want the airline to divulge 10 years' worth of discrimination complaints so they could compare the airline's behavior before and after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Attorneys representing the airline argued they should have to turn over just three years' worth of such data. The reason, said one: 9/11 changed everything.
"The bottom line is we're in a post-9/11 world," US Airways attorney Dane Jaques told U.S. Magistrate Arthur Boylan. "Procedures changed. The world changed. So much changed after 9/11."
But Omar Mohammedi, a lawyer representing the six imams, argued that the information was crucial to the plaintiffs' claim that they were victims of racial profiling, discriminated against because they were Muslims of Middle Eastern descent.
"We know with 9/11 came discrimination," he told the judge. "We want to see what the situation was before 9/11, compared to after 9/11." Read more ...
Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
Posts
