I am really tiring of this nonsense

Debra Burlingame, sister of a 9/11 pilot, has penned a great piece for the Wall Street Journal editorial page, explaining why USAirways was right to pull those six imams out of the plane.

"Allahu Akbar" was just the opening act. After boarding, they did not take their assigned seats but dispersed to seats in the first row of first class, in the midcabin exit rows and in the rear--the exact configuration of the 9/11 execution teams. The head of the group, seated closest to the cockpit, and two others asked for a seatbelt extension, kept on board for obese people. A heavy metal buckle at the end of a long strap, it can easily be used as a lethal weapon. The three men rolled them up and placed them on the floor under their seats. And lest this entire incident be written off as simple cultural ignorance, a frightened Arabic-speaking passenger pulled aside a crew member and translated the imams' suspicious conversations, which included angry denunciations of Americans, furious grumblings about U.S. foreign policy, Osama Bin Laden and "killing Saddam."

Had I been on that plane and these men permitted to continue, I would have left and taken the next flight. Nobody, nobody has the right to behave in a manner threatening to others. And after 9/11, shouting Allahu Akbar and not sitting in one's assigned seat is threatening behavior. Typically, the lawyers are now involved and looking for money:

Today, MAS Executive Director Mahdi Bray says his organization wants more than an apology. He wants to "hit [US Airways] where it hurts, the pocketbook," and, joined by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), will seek compensation for the imams, civil and federal monetary sanctions, and new, sweeping legislation that will extract even bigger penalties for airlines that engage in "racial and religious profiling."

I, for one, am tired of Muslims playing games. I am tired of being told how peaceful they are, and if I say I don't believe it they will riot. I am tired of being told I must be "tolerant" in the face of provocative behavior. I am tired of the ongoing grievances of people that consider me an infidel. I am simply tired of it all. This is no game.

This is the doctrine of "captain's authority." It has a longstanding history and a statutory mandate, further strengthened after 9/11, which recognizes that flight crews are our last line of defense between the kernel of a terrorist plot and its lethal execution. The day we tell the captain of a commercial airliner that he cannot remove a problem passenger unless he divines beyond question what is in that passenger's head and heart is the day our commercial aviation system begins to crumble. When a passenger's conduct is so disturbing and disruptive that reasonable, ordinary people fear for their lives, the captain must have the discretionary authority to respond without having to consider equal protection or First Amendment standards about which even trained lawyers with the clarity of hindsight might strongly disagree.

I think these men should be thrown into jail for their provocative behavior. If they manage to extract one red cent from this episode, it will be a sad, disgusting shame.

Update: This is exactly what I am talking about:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned Western leaders to follow the path of God or "vanish from the face of the earth". [...]

"They are angry with our nation. But we tell them 'so be it and die from this anger'. Rest assured that if you do not respond to the divine call, you will die soon and vanish from the face of the earth," he said.