WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun a review of six Muslim imams who were removed from an aircraft in Minnesota after praying.
The incident on Monday began when a passenger aboard a US Airways flight bound for Phoenix told a flight attendant the men were behaving suspiciously, and security staff removed them from the plane for several hours of questioning.
US Airways reportedly refused to put them on another flight and they eventually flew to Phoenix on a Northwest Airlines flight.
Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations denounced the move as "triggered by prejudice and ignorance, not by real evidence of a threat to passenger safety."
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said he received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties saying it was reviewing its employees' conduct.
Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington Bureau, also criticized how the incident was handled in a statement.
"We encourage a thorough investigation into the matter and call for the passing of the End Racial Profiling Act, which is currently pending in Congress," Shelton wrote.
