I noted here a Twin Cities news story about certain Muslim cashiers who are refusing to scan packages of bacon and put them into grocery bags, and linked to my post on our AOL page titled If She Won’t Scan the Bacon, Do I Get It For Free?
That post prompted an outpouring of comments on the AOL page, as well as in the Forum. My favorite:
Maybe we should put up a great wall of bacon between Iraq and Iran so we could stop the Iranians from supplying weapons.
This morning, Scott wrote about the lawsuit that the Six Traveling Imams have filed against U.S. Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Scott highlighted the fact that the imams included as “John Doe” defendants, to be added to the case later, the passengers who expressed concerns about their activities to the airplane’s crew.
My first question was, who is representing the imams? Usually cases of this sort are taken by lawyers who specialize in this area of the law, on a contingent fee basis. The imams’ case didn’t sound like one that most lawyers would want to invest their time in, and, sure enough, the imams are not being represented by a local tort lawyer. Instead, their complaint is signed by a New York lawyer named Omar T. Mohammedi. His firm’s web site is here. Here is Mohammedi’s bio, taken from a flyer for a Muslim Lawyers’ Association event; click to enlarge:
What strikes me as most notable is that Mohammedi is the President of CAIR-New York. CAIR is backing the imams’ lawsuit; indeed, it was announced at a CAIR press conference in Washington. It seems reasonable to infer that CAIR is paying Mr. Mohammedi to pursue the imams’ lawsuit against U.S. Airways, and, if the Complaint is to be believed, the passengers who reported the imams to the crew.
CAIR is a well-funded organization, from Middle Eastern as well as American sources. It is willing and able to fund litigation, and has a history of using litigation to silence its opponents. Any case that Mohammedi may bring against the passengers who reported the imams’ suspicious behavior will be a terrible lawsuit. The imams won’t win it. But getting even a terrible lawsuit dismissed often costs thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars. That’s not much money to a well-funded advocacy group like CAIR, but it is a great deal of money to most average citizens. Not to mention, of course, the understandable horror most people have of becoming embroiled in a lawsuit.
It is fair to infer, I think, that one of CAIR’s purposes in supporting the imams’ case against U.S. Airways et al. is to intimidate and deter future air travelers from reporting any suspicious behavior they may observe, if that behavior is engaged in by people they perceive to be Muslims.
UPDATE: Check out a great post at the Forum, here.
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