WASHINGTON - Six Muslim clerics have filed a discrimination suit against US Airways Group Inc for removing them from a flight last November after passengers reported "suspicious behaviour."
The lawsuit, filed yesterday, seeks unspecified damages for violating the rights of the six imams, who had been attending aconference of Muslim leaders in Minneapolis.
"This civil rights lawsuit is brought to ensure that the promise of equal treatment embodied in federal and state anti-discrimination laws does not become a meaningless guarantee for persons perceived to be Muslim," said the lawsuit, filed in US district court in Minneapolis.
Other defendants in the lawsuit include unnamed airline employees, passengers and the airport authority.
The lawsuit says the men aroused suspicion when they prayed together before boarding the flight to Phoenix.
Other passengers told airport authorities that the men asked to change seats and made anti-American statements.
The lawsuit says the men did not discuss politics and asked to switch seats because one of them was blind and needed assistance.
US Airways said it stood by its employees' actions.
"This was not about prayer, but rather about behaviour on the airplane that led to a decision by our crew members, which was backed by local law enforcement, to remove these customers from the airplane," the airline said in a statement.
Airport police handcuffed the men, searched them with dogs and would not provide access to an attorney, the lawsuit says.
After the FBI and Secret Service officials determined they were not a threat, US Airways told the men the following day that they were banned from the airline.
US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant said that was a miscommunication and the men are not banned from the airline.
