Men In Muslim Dress Pulled From Flight; Delayed In Reaching Conference On Anti-Islam Bias

Two men wearing traditional Muslim clothing were pulled off an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight from Memphis (TN) to Charlotte (NC) on Friday for re-screening after the pilot was uncomfortable with their being on board. The Christian Science Monitor reports that the two-- an adjunct professor of Arabic at the University of Memphis and an imam at the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis-- ironically were on their way to a conference on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bias. They were ultimately delayed nine hours after their plane, which had already left the gate, returned and the men were refused reboarding even after their second screening.