I'm Glad They Picked This Family

I was saddened to hear that a Muslim family was taken off a flight from DC to Orlando for what sounds like some totally paranoid and overzealous complaints by passengers. I highly doubt that the family of a tax attorney, U.S. citizen, and his friend a Library of Congress attorney, who happen to be Muslim, were doing anything to warrant being pulled off the plane. The CNN account states that what freaked passengers out is that the family was discussing where the safest place is to sit on a plane. I've had this discussion myself with people before, on a U.S. carrier.

The reason why I say I'm glad they picked this family, though, is because instead of ranting and raving like lunatics about the issue, they spoke intelligently and reservedly. They should be an example, both for those who think all Muslims are psychos and for the Muslims who do their best to uphold the stereotype.

Irfan, a U.S. citizen and tax attorney, said he was "impressed with the professionalism" of the FBI agents who questioned him, but said he felt mistreated when the airline refused to book the family for a later flight.

"We are proud Americans," Sahin [his sister-in-law] said. "You know we decided to have our children and raise them here. We can very easily go anywhere we want in the world, but you know we love it here and we're not going to go away, no matter what."