Muslims say they'll shun Northwest (Airlines) -- DFP

Group wants compensation after 40 are kept off flight

January 17, 2007

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A group of metro Detroiters is threatening to lead a boycott of Northwest Airlines over what they say is a pattern of profiling against Muslim passengers.

"I know that many Muslims call Northwest 'Northworst'... for its treatment to the Muslim community," Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, said Tuesday.

Al-Qazwini was in a group of about 40 pilgrims who were prevented from boarding a connecting flight in Germany to Detroit on Jan. 7 while returning from a trip to holy cities in Saudi Arabia. The Muslim group, most of whom are Lebanese-American Shi'ites, held a news conference Tuesday at the Dearborn mosque to describe what they say happened to them. They called for Northwest to apologize, compensate them, and discipline the employees they said profiled them.

"Otherwise," Al-Qazwini said, "if Northwest will not do that, then probably we have to call all Muslim organizations to encourage Muslims from not flying on Northwest."

With tens of thousands of Muslim customers, Northwest could be hurt financially by such a boycott, Al-Qazwini suggested, adding that "I hope Northwest will be wiser."

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