No, this isn’t a post about some carny high-wire act, it’s about those six Muslims who, last month, were, ummm, “escorted” off a plane in Minneapolis prior to take-off for Phoenix.

Pajamas Media has all the detail you could ever want on this story, complete with links to the official police report and several witnesses who had birds-eye views of the events as they unfolded. Included is an interview with a passenger who corroborates critical information provided by US Airways flight attendents and gate personnel:

* That all six imams had boarded together (with the first-class passengers), even though only one of them had a first-class ticket
* That three had purchased one-way tickets, and only one had checked a bag
* That the six spread out on the airplane just like the 9-11 hijackers – two in first class, two in the middle, and two in the rear section
* That one or more appeared to be sitting in seats not assigned to them
* That the men prayed both at the gate and on the plane, whereas observant Muslims pray only once at sundown, not twice
* That one of the men seated in first class asked for a seat-belt extension, even though two flight attendents felt he looked too thin to need one; hours later, when the passengers were being evacuated, the seat-belt extension was found on the floor, near the imam’s seat.

As the passenger is quoted as saying, “It was almost as if they were intentionally trying to get kicked off the flight.”

To quote my Auntie Marge, “correctamundo!” And that’s what the whole incident was all about – wanting to get kicked off the flight, wanting to make a scene, wanting to get the CAIR folks screaming “Persecution!” to a mainstream liberal media all too happy to play the role of willing accomplices and broadcast their plight. Of course, the questions begs, to what purpose? I’ve read some speculation that it was all a ruse, that that’s all it was about – the six wanting to stage the incident to prove some point about Muslim intolerance and “persecution” in the U.S.

I don’t buy it. But then, I also don’t buy other speculation that this was a potential terror attack averted prior to take-off. Given all the info that has come out in the days and weeks since, it seems clear that what these guys were after was pure and simple – to test our nation’s airline security and tolerance for certain kinds of behavior in airports and on planes for the benefit of other Muslims. Of course, that begs the questions: what other Muslims?, and, for what purpose? That, unfortunately, we may never know. But make no mistake about it – these guys were up to no good.

A day after the incident, I heard a radio interview with one of the imams involved – the one who happened to be blind – and he seemed shocked – SHOCKED, I tell ya – that anyone could see anything the least bit unusual about their behavior. What seemed more than a little strange to me was that he seemed to know EVERYTHING about the others’ behavior and intentions – something that could only come from the sharing of strategy or talking points. After all, as a blind man sitting with only one of the others, how could he have known the actions of others sitting several rows behind him?

Say we give them the benefit of the doubt. Fine. But anyone who has recently attempted to travel one-way, and without checking bags, can tell you just how quick he or she becomes the object of attention at the security gates. And you don’t have to be Muslim, or even a frequent flyer, to find that out. No, these guys were up to something, and willingly or not, they got caught. And their cries of persection and tolerance ring pretty hollow in these quarters.

The sad truth is fact is, even the most dim-witted bulb out there should know that, in this post-9/11 world, like it or not, foreigners and Muslims are being held to higher scrutiny when it comes to their behavior on board an airplane. For those of us who travel often, that’s not racial profiling, that’s just plain common sense. And if they can’t handle it, well, unfortunately, that’s too damned bad. Falcon at Hang Right Politics (Hat tip: Polipundit) has some fine advice to the “Flying Imams” – get over it! He writes:

If you’re Muslim and don’t appreciate the extra scrutiny, perceived or real, you’re getting – DEAL WITH IT! I’m Black. If 19 black guys had hijacked 4 jumbo jets and used them as giant missiles in an attempt to destroy this country I would expect people to look at me a little more carefully. Heck, being Black, in certain areas of this country, is still akin to probable cause. But we deal with it because, as your parents should’ve told you, life isn’t always fair.

Thanks Falcon, couldn’t have said it better myself.