There was disappointment [last Thursday] in the ranks of the nation's pro-life movement as the House of Representatives failed to pass a bill that would recognize the pain an unborn baby feels when it is being aborted. An overwhelming number of Democrats led the effort to defeat the bill.

The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (H.R. 6099) would require abortionists to inform women seeking abortions late in their pregnancy (20 weeks or more after fertilization) to be told their baby will experience pain. The bill would not require anesthesia; it would, however, protect a doctor's right to inform the woman of any risks to her according to the doctor's own best medical judgment.

A majority of the House actually voted in favor of H.R. 6099 on Wednesday night by a margin of 250-162. However, the measure -- which was introduced by New Jersey's Chris Smith, an outspoken pro-life Republican -- required a two-thirds majority to pass, and the end result was failure. Of the 162 who voted to defeat the measure, 152 were Democrats. Nine Republicans and one Independent joined them.

The president of Washington, DC-based Concerned Women for America (CWA) was among the many pro-lifers on Capitol Hill who had hoped the House would pass the bill. Wendy Wright says women deserve to know the facts before making a decision that inflicts "extreme pain" on their baby, ending his or her life in a fashion akin to torture.

"Regrettably," says Wright, "congressmen -- many who denounced the use of torture against suspected terrorists -- have voted to not let women know that abortion will torture their innocent unborn babies. Abortion not only kills a baby, it tortures them."

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, says it is no small thing that 60 percent of the House endorsed the bill. But he believes that the other 40 percent "will have to explain why they favor anti-pain laws for animals used for research or food, but not for unborn humans."

(Jackson and Brown, AgapePress, December 7, 2006)

From Debbie Schlussel's website: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/001724print.html

By Debbie Schlussel

**** UPDATE, 12/13/06: Per readers comments and suggestions, I called FedEx, and FedEx will deliver to anywhere in Israel and the so-called "West Bank," so I recommend FedEx, too, over UPS. ****

With the Judeo-Christian holidays upon us, now is one of the biggest package shipping times of the year. And given that, I hope you, dear readers, will reject UPS in favor of DHL for your package deliveries. Apparently, UPS is the official package delivery service of the jihad and practices delivery apartheid against Jews.

I thought the "P" stood for Parcel, but I was wrong--it's the United Palestinian Service.

Yesterday, I received this e-mail from reader Ruth G.:

Dear Debbie:

A friend of mine has a son learning in the Gush in Israel. She wanted to send him a package. She called UPS about shipping her package to Gush Yeshiva [DS: A yeshiva is a Jewish academy] in the Gush EtZion. UPS told her they do not deliver packages beyond the green line. He would have to go the Jerusalem to pick it up. My friend asked if they deliver packages to Ramala. The reply was yes. After further research for a delivery service she called DHL, they had no problem taking her package and delivering it to her son.

UPS: Jihad Package Service; DHL: For Us Infidels

Are you aware of this? Why won't UPS deliver in all areas of the State of Israel?

Sincerely,

Ruth G.
Baltimore, MD

Last night, I called UPS to verify this, and, in fact, it is true. Not only is it true, but UPS will not recognize even parts of Israel that are within the "Green Line," such as the Golan Heights. A man from UPS read me the following statement (which is not on the UPS website--perhaps they are too cowardly to acknowledge this online):

UPS service is provided to and from most addresses within Israel and the Palestine [sic] Authority area, except for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a few remote areas in the Golan Hieghts, and the Southern Negev desert.

I asked the UPS employee if I could send a package to "Palestinian" areas of the West Bank. He said yes. I asked him if I could send a package to terrorist-infested Ramallah. He said yes. I asked him if I could send a package to Arab areas in the Golan Heights. Again, the answer was "YES."

I asked the man why UPS would not deliver to Jewish areas of these regions. He responded, "for security reasons. It's dangerous there." A big, fat lie--the Jewish areas are the only safe areas in these regions. In the Palestinian areas, the UPS man might be tortured and/or beheaded and his "package" castrated without anesthetic, as is a traditional form of torture there.

I asked the UPS employee how it could possibly be safer in the streets of Ramallah, where Fatah and HAMAS terrorists are killing each other and Westerners, daily, than it is in Gush Etzion. "I don't know. I just work here. I don't set policy," was the response.

Well, now we know the official "policy" of UPS--giving in to Islamic terrorists and their anti-Semitic views.

The Etzion block is an important place in Israeli history and Jewish history. There were Jews living in villages there well before the State of Israel existed. It is the "Southern Gateway" to Jerusalem. History of Gush Etzion is on the official Gush website.

In 1948, all four Gush Etzion settlements were totally destroyed. Arab Muslims tortured and murdered 240 men and women, with another 260 being taken into captivity (and tortured). Prime Minister Ben Gurion in 1948 eulogized the defenders of Gush Etzion and their heroic stand against the Jordanian Legion:

I can think of no battle in the annals of the Israel Defense Forces which was more magnificent, more tragic or more heroic than the struggle for Gush Etzion - If there exists a Jewish Jerusalem, our foremost thanks go to the defenders of Gush Etzion.

The heroism of the people of the Etzion Bloc in the face of Islamic terrorists is captured in a great (and sad) book I enjoyed reading, "Siege in the Hills of Hebron: The Battle of the Etzion Bloc" (edited by Dov Knohl).

Now, the new battle is apparently in the package delivery arena. Since anti-Semitic UPS won't deliver to Jewish areas, I suggest you send your packages via DHL, which has no such phony "security" problems. And tell your friends and family, too. (Ironically, DHL is German-owned; UPS is supposed to be American.)

Today, they won't deliver to Jewish areas. Tomorrow, it will be Christian areas. But the Islamic terrorist-infested areas, no prob. UPS: Official delivery service of the Jihad. DHL: Still free and strong.

****

"Saudis Say They Might Back Sunnis if U.S. Leaves Iraq,"
 by Helene Cooper for the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — Saudi Arabia has told the Bush administration that it might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in any war against Iraq’s Shiites if the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq, according to American and Arab diplomats.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia conveyed that message to Vice President Dick Cheney two weeks ago during Mr. Cheney’s whirlwind visit to Riyadh, the officials said. During the visit, King Abdullah also expressed strong opposition to diplomatic talks between the United States and Iran, and pushed for Washington to encourage the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, senior Bush administration officials said.

The Saudi warning reflects fears among America’s Sunni Arab allies about Iran’s rising influence in Iraq, coupled with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. King Abdullah II of Jordan has also expressed concern about rising Shiite influence, and about the prospect that the Shiite-dominated government would use Iraqi troops against the Sunni population.

A senior Bush administration official said Tuesday that part of the administration’s review of Iraq policy involved the question of how to harness a coalition of moderate Iraqi Sunnis with centrist Shiites to back the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

The Saudis have argued strenuously against an American pullout from Iraq, citing fears that Iraq’s minority Sunni Arab population would be massacred. Those fears, United States officials said, have become more pronounced as a growing chorus in Washington has advocated a draw-down of American troops in Iraq, coupled with diplomatic outreach to Iran, which is largely Shiite.

“It’s a hypothetical situation, and we’d work hard to avoid such a structure,” one Arab diplomat in Washington said. But, he added, “If things become so bad in Iraq, like an ethnic cleansing, we will feel we are pulled into the war.”

The Bush administration is also working on a way to form a coalition of Sunni Arab nations and a moderate Shiite government in Iraq, along with the United States and Europe, to stand against “Iran, Syria and the terrorists,” another senior administration official said Tuesday.

Until now Saudi officials have promised their counterparts in the United States that they would refrain from aiding Iraq’s Sunni insurgency. But that pledge holds only as long as the United States remains in Iraq.

The Saudis have been wary of supporting Sunnis in Iraq because their insurgency there has been led by extremists of Al Qaeda, who are opposed to the kingdom’s monarchy. But if Iraq’s sectarian war worsened, the Saudis would line up with Sunni tribal leaders.

__

The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, who told his staff on Monday that he was resigning his post, recently fired Nawaf Obaid, a consultant who wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post two weeks ago contending that “one of the first consequences” of an American pullout of Iraq would “be massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.”

Mr. Obaid also suggested that Saudi Arabia could cut world oil prices in half by raising its production, a move that he said “would be devastating to Iran, which is facing economic difficulties even with today’s high oil prices.” The Saudi government disavowed Mr. Obaid’s column, and Prince Turki canceled his contract.

But Arab diplomats said Tuesday that Mr. Obaid’s column reflected the view of the Saudi government, which has made clear its opposition to an American pullout from Iraq.

In a speech in Philadelphia last week, Prince Turki reiterated the Saudi position against an American withdrawal from Iraq. “Just picking up and leaving is going to create a huge vacuum,” he told the World Affairs Council. “The U.S. must underline its support for the Maliki government because there is no other game in town.”

Prince Turki said Saudi Arabia did not want Iraq to fracture along ethnic or religious lines. On Monday a group of prominent Saudi clerics called on Sunni Muslims around the world to mobilize against Shiites in Iraq. The statement called the “murder, torture and displacement of Sunnis” an “outrage.”

The resignation of Prince Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and a son of the late King Faisal, was supposed to be formally announced Monday, officials said, but that had not happened by late Tuesday.

“They’re keeping us very puzzled,” a Saudi official said. Prince Turki’s resignation was first reported Monday in The Washington Post.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

Though there is nothing specifically predicted about the United States in the “Last Days”, there are certainly examples of how God dealt with great powers in the past – and why.

The Bible predicted the destinies of Four Great world Empires. Daniel particularly focused on them. He predicted the fall of mighty Babylon and witnessed it take place.

The city of Babylon was considered one of the great wonders of the ancient world. The Babylonians considered it impregnable – and with good reason.

Great Babylon was once greater than we are – but go look at what is left now. It is a heap of rubble, hardly known by the world today. God raises nations and destroys them as He wills.

Email Author: By: Hal Lindsey

I cannot begin to image the outrage moms and dads, brothers and sisters,wives and husbands who have lost their loved ones in this “war” will now feel. Can you imagine if your only son died for this…for what ? And would you want your son going over there now, knowing he may die for this ? Bush and his administration had a complete lack of understanding of Islam and the Middle East from the very beginning.. And truth be told we should have stayed out of Iraq and saved our resources (including US servicemen and women) for a confrontation with Iran, as all along THEY have been the bigger danger then Saddam.  We will end up selling out Israel and anyone else who thought we actually stood for something. We stand for nothing anymore ! Sorry fellow Americans but the glory days of the United States are well behind her, get used to it, this is our future. I used to support Bush and defend him when my leftist coworkers berailed him as a dope, I’m not so sure now they were far off. Dope or deceived, neither is forgivable. God we look weak. Well we knew this was coming, no one should be surprized.

 2 I will gather all (this includes the US) nations
       and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
       There I will enter into judgment against them
       concerning my inheritance, my people Israel,
       for they scattered my people among the nations
       and divided up my land.


Yoni has some wisdom over at  http://www.yonitheblogger.com

(IsraelNN.com) American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week promised weapons to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which a PA security force member said will be used against Israel, according to WorldNetDaily.

Reporter Aaron Klein quoted Abu Yusef, a member of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Force 17 which was promised the weapons, as saying they will be used to "fight Israeli occupation." Yusef belongs to the Force 17, Abbas's elite security army, and also is a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is a branch of Abbas's Fatah party.

Rice met Abbas last week in Jericho and pledged 6,000 new assault rifles, according to Arab sources. Foreign and local media have reported that the American proposal also provides for American military instruction at two Force 17 bases in Jericho and in Gaza.

Several previous terrorist attacks have been carried out following the transfer of weapons provided by the United States, and PA forces in the 1990s attacked Israel with guns provided by former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin

Why Johnny is reading Islamist propaganda [Excerpts]

Islam is being taught in the nation's public schools as a religion to be embraced because "organized Islamists have gained control of textbook content," according to an organization that analyzes textbooks.

The American Textbook Council has concluded that the situation is the consequence of "the interplay of determined Islamic political activists, textbook editors, and multiculturally minded social studies curriculum planners."

William J. Bennetta, author of The Textbook Letter and a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, also has documented dozens of instances of advocacy for or against a belief system, and has produced a list of books where the "religion preaching" leaves them "unfit for use."

Indeed, Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes even has repeatedly expressed concern about the "privileging of Islam in the United States" and warns the stakes go well beyond 7th-grade texts. His opinion of Houghton Mifflin's "Across the Centuries?" Full of 'apologetics' and 'distortions'."

WND also has reported that a man arrested as a terror suspect for allegedly trying to transport $340,000 from a group tied to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and who reputedly had connections to Osama bin Laden, helped write the "Religious Expression in Public Schools" guidelines issued by President Clinton during his tenure in office.

Bennetta, who is adamant that no religious beliefs be included as preaching in textbooks, cites a Houghton Mifflin book "Across the Centuries" as having a lot of Muslim "propaganda." He said the 1999 version has one thing an earlier edition didn't: an apparent source.

Listed as a consultant is "Shabbir Mansuri, Founding Director, Council on Islamic Education, Fountain Valley, California."

Bennetta said the CIE is "a conspicuous Muslim outfit that evidently specializes in inducing schoolbook-writers to sanitize and eulogize Islam, to retail Muslim religious claims as facts, to retail Muslim woo-woo as history, and to depict Islam as an amicable religion that resembles, and is compatible with, Judaism and Christianity."

He said other texts and publishers for which he's found a basis for criticism include "Human Heritage: A World History" by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill; "A Message of "Ancient Days" by Houghton Mifflin; "Across the Centuries" by Houghton Mifflin; "Heath World History: Perspectives on the Past" by McDougal Littell; "Ancient World" by McGraw-Hill School Division; "Making Thirteen Colonies" by Oxford University Press, "World History: Continuity and Change" by Holt, Rinehart and Winston; and "World Cultures: A Global Mosaic" by Prentice Hall, among others.

"If our nation's cultural underpinnings are in conflict with religious dogma and values that are intent on replacing or even eradicating them, should not children and their teachers be made aware? Just as pro-Soviet enthusiasms, Mao worship, and Cold War revisionism seem naïve today, currently prescribed views of Islam may also some day seem like dangerous nonsense. And what key points might replace the obvious flaws in the current generation of textbooks? That militant Islam is a real force in the world today, an insurgency that is a real threat to the nation's democratic way of life and freedoms that its citizens often take for granted."

Christmas and Nativity scenes are outlawed while Clinton's nominee, U.S.
District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, recently approved "Islam: A Simulation"
where children learn to become Muslim, recite the Quran, fast for Ramadan and pray to Allah including this prayer: "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of Creation, The Compassionate, the Merciful, King of Judgment-day! You alone we worship, and to You alone we pray for help, Guide us to the straight path," wrote Jen Shroder, on her BlessedCause.org website.

"America does not comprehend Muslim resolve to make America Islam," Shroder wrote. "Suicide bombers have already demonstrated their willingness to kill and die for it." (Unruh, WorldNetDaily.com, 10/26/06).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*The Berean Call email

I thought the ingenious Condi/Olmert worked out 'ceasefire' was supposed to be an end to all this type nonsense , what happened to Condi's robust plan ? I know she's waiting until the new Nazi's the Palenstinians have thier own "state" to attack Israel from, along with the fallen Lebanese governemnt overrun by Hizbullah.....I'm confident she can work all ends towards the middle.

Hizbullah Planning Mass Demonstration Against Beirut
Gov't 16:32 Nov 29, '06 / 8 Kislev 5767

(IsraelNN.com) The terrorist organization Hizbullah, led by Hassan Nasrallah, is planning a mass demonstration against the Lebanese government in the next two days. The protesters will call for the immediate resignation of the current administration, led by Fouad Siniora.

Government ministers from Hizbullah and the Amal movement resigned from the Lebanese coalition recently when their demand for greater influence over national policies was not met. A Christian minister, Pierre Gemayal, was assassinated last week, with many assuming Syrian involvement.

US: Olmert gave Palestinians a political horizon

Americans satisfied with ceasefire, PM's dramatic speech. 'Olmert demonstrated that he is truly interested in the dialogue that would lead to a two-state solution,' State Department spokesman says. US Secretary of State Rice, who will visit Jordan this week, may meet separately with Olmert, Abbas

Yitzhak Benhorin
Published: 11.28.06, 00:21

WASHINGTON – The ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech are part of an effort to launch a series of acts, the first of which will be the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, which will be followed by the release of Palestinian prisoners, American officials were convinced Monday evening.

As part of the process, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to visit the Middle East this week and meet separately with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert .

"On Saturday (with the announcement of a ceasefire), we started this path, ad I hope it will lead us to advance toward the objective we all want to achive – peace and quiet and trusting each other."

Olmert also said during his speech that "with the release of Gilad Shalit safe and sound and his return to his family, the Israeli government would be willing to release many Palestinian prisoners, including those sentenced for long period of time."

Officials at the Prime Minister's Office clarified Monday evening that in spite of the government's willingness, "There will be no progress on the issue of the Palestinian prisoners as long as Gilad Shalit does not return. In addition, there is no sensational development on the Shalit issue."

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack welcomed Olmert's speech and defined the ceasefire as "a welcome development, certainly potentially promising."

The American spokesman noted that "Prime Minister Olmert, I think, has through this speech and through his remarks demonstrated that he is truly interested in the dialogue that would lead to a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace. He has offered up a political horizon to the Palestinians to negotiate in good faith. That's certainly promising.

"But again, before you get to that point, there are obstacles. There are obstacles that need to be overcome," he added.

The American spokesman expressed the United States' willingness to continue to help in promoting a dialogue rather than violence, but detailed the obstacles: "One of them certainly is a Hamas-led government that has not met the Quartet conditions for realizing a political dialogue that eventually leads to a two-state solution.

"Another obstacle are those rejectionist groups who would use violence, who try to derail any sort of hopeful developments or potentially hopeful development."

McCormack expressed his satisfaction over the deployment of the Palestinian forces in the northern Gaza Strip in an effort to halt the Qassam fire. He also knows, however, that the efforts to stop the attacks have not fully succeeded in light of the rockets fired at Israel Monday afternoon.

"It is up to the Palestinian security forces to stop those kinds of attacks," he said.

The Dark Ages - live from the Middle East!
[Excerpts]

The most frightening aspect of the present war is how easily our pre-modern enemies from the Middle East have brought a stunned postmodern world back into the Dark Ages.

Students of history are sickened when they read of the long-ago, gruesome practice of beheading. How brutal were those societies that chopped off the heads of Cicero, Sir Thomas More and Marie Antoinette. And how lucky we thought we were to have evolved from such elemental barbarity.

Twenty-four hundred years ago, Socrates was executed for unpopular speech.
The 18th-century European Enlightenment gave people freedom to express views formerly censored by clerics and the state. Just imagine what life was like once upon a time when no one could write music, compose fiction or paint without court or church approval?

It is almost surreal now to read about the elemental hatred of Jews in the Spanish Inquisition, 19th-century Russian pogroms or the Holocaust. Yet here we are revisiting the old horrors of the savage past.

Beheading? As we saw with Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl, our Neanderthal enemies in the Middle East have resurrected that ancient barbarity -- and married it with 21st-century technology to beam the resulting gore instantaneously onto our computer screens. Xerxes and Attila, who stuck their victims' heads on poles for public display, would've been thrilled by such a gruesome show.

Who would have thought centuries after the Enlightenment that sophisticated Europeans -- in fear of radical Islamists -- would be afraid to write a novel, put on an opera, draw a cartoon, film a documentary or have their pope discuss comparative theology?

The astonishing fact is not just that millions of women worldwide in 2006 are still veiled from head-to-toe, trapped in arranged marriages, subject to polygamy, honor killings and forced circumcision, or are without the right to vote or appear alone in public. What is more baffling is that in the West, liberal Europeans are often wary of protecting female citizens from the excesses of Sharia law - sometimes even fearful of asking women to unveil their faces for purposes of simple identification and official conversation.

Who these days is shocked that Israel is hated by Arab nations and threatened with annihilation by radical Iran? Instead, the surprise is that even in places like Paris or Seattle, Jews are singled out and killed for the apparent crime of being Jewish.

The Goths and Vandals did not sack Rome solely through the power of their hordes; they also relied on the paralysis of Roman elites who no longer knew what it was to be Roman -- much less whether it was any better than the alternative.

[Civilization] is forfeited with a whimper, not a bang. Insidiously, we have allowed radical Islamists to redefine the primordial into the not-so-bad.
Perhaps women in head-to-toe burkas in Europe prefer them? Maybe that crass German opera was just too over the top after all? Aren't both parties equally to blame in the Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan wars?

To grasp the flavor of our own Civil War, impersonators now don period dress and reconstruct the battles of Shiloh or Gettysburg. But we need no so such historical reenactment of the Dark Ages. You see, they are back with us - live almost daily from the Middle East.

(Hanson, Jewish World Review,  Oct. 26, 2006 ).

"Under fire, US marines hand off battered Fallujah," by Scott Peterson for the Christian Science Monitor:

FALLUJAH, IRAQ - From Observation Post Blazer, marines view Fallujah through a thick sheet of bullet-proof glass - already tested with numerous impacts. Or they stare through night-vision goggles or a thermal imaging scope that can pick up the heat of a dog hundreds of yards away.

The marines still patrol key roads. The US military, which still travels boldly through town despite a surge in deadly sniper attacks and roadside bombs, is spending $200 million on 60-plus projects to rebuild the city, heavily damaged in fighting two years ago.

But with just 300 marines, the US military footprint is smaller in this Sunni stronghold of more than 300,000 than it has been in two years. As the marine presence shrinks and Iraqis take more control, Fallujah - once a template for counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq, where US forces have controlled all the variables - is likely again to set a standard for the rest of the country.

"A lot of us feel like we have our hands tied behind our back," says Cpl. Peter Mattice, of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment. "In Fallujah, [insurgents] know our [rules of engagement] - they know when to stop, just before we engage."

[...]

"They say we are here to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, but I just don't see that happening," says Corporal Mattice, of Gladwin, Mich. OP Blazer is perched on the northern edge of the city, looking due south down a main street known to the marines as Ethan, site of numerous roadside bombs.

[...]

Each precinct in Chicago or Detroit, makes 100 to 150 arrests per night per 300,000 people," says Major Kolomjec, a lawyer who notes that Fallujah's population is similar. "Here you take 12 to 40 people per day, and people are up in arms. You can't expect stability, when you are not even doing the same level of policing as Detroit."

Another source of frustration: Pursuit in mosques is forbidden without the presence of Iraqi Army units. Marines say some of Fallujah's 76 mosques are used to hide weaponry. Some broadcast messages such as, "God help us defeat the Americans."

"Many would ask: What other war would we allow the enemy to broadcast calls for our defeat, for the sake of cultural sensitivity?" says O'Neill

"They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way," said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix.

The six Muslim scholars were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, president of the group. Five of them were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, Calif., he said.

Three of them stood and said their normal evening prayers together on the plane, as 1.7 billion Muslims around the world do every day, Shahin said. He attributed any concerns by passengers or crew to ignorance about Islam.

"I never felt bad in my life like that," he said. "I never. Six imams. Six leaders in this country. Six scholars in handcuffs. It's terrible."

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, expressed anger at the detentions.

"CAIR will be filing a complaint with relevant authorities in the morning over the treatment of the imams to determine whether the incident was caused by anti-Muslim hysteria by the passengers and/or the airline crew," Hooper said. "Because, unfortunately, this is a growing problem of singling out Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airports, and it's one that we've been addressing for some time."

Hooper said the meeting drew about 150 imams from all over the country, and that those attending included U.S. Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minneapolis, who just became the first Muslim elected to Congress. Shahin said they went as far as notifying police and the FBI about their meeting in advance.

Shahin expressed frustration that - despite extensive efforts by him and other Muslim leaders since even before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - so many Americans know so little about Islam.

"If up to now they don't know about prayers, this is a real problem," he said.

Reached by cell phone just after his release, Shahin said he didn't know where they would spend the night or how they would try to get back to Phoenix on Tuesday. Hooper said US Airways refused to put the men on another flight.
http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S20152.html?cat=1