WASHINGTON, 23 November 2006 — US Airways said it was investigating an incident in which six Muslim imams were handcuffed and removed from a flight at a Minnesota airport but later released without charges.

“We are diligently conducting our own investigation today,” US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder said in a statement.

The pilot asked authorities to remove the six men on Monday after passengers expressed “concern” about their actions, said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for Minneapolis-St Paul International airport.

In the gate area before boarding the aircraft bound for Phoenix, Arizona, the six Muslim imams “were praying loudly and spouting some kind of anti-US rhetoric regarding the war in Iraq and Saddam Hussein,” said Hogan, citing a police investigation.

A flight attendant thought it was “curious” that the six men were asking for seat-belt extensions which they did not seem to need, as the extensions are given only to larger or obese passengers, Hogan said.

One of the men also indicated “it was necessary to go to whatever measures necessary to obey all that is set out in the Qur’an.”

The six men were released after five hours of questioning by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Marshals Service and the Secret Service, Hogan said.

“No charges were filed. The case is closed,” Hogan said.

The imams had been attending a conference of the North American Imams Federation and felt they had been “humiliated” for no reason, a US Islamic civil liberties group said.

“We are concerned that crew members, passengers and security personnel may have succumbed to fear and prejudice based on stereotyping of Muslims and Islam,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The imams believe that suspicions may have been raised by the performance of normal evening prayers in Arabic, CAIR said.

The detained imams also denied media reports “that they refused to leave the plane or that they chanted ‘Allah’ as they were escorted from the flight,” it said.

US Airways said that it was interviewing crew and passengers involved in the incident and that the airline does not permit discrimination in any way.

“We are always concerned when passengers are inconvenienced, and especially concerned when the situation occurs that causes customers to feel their dignity is compromised,” Wunder said.

“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind and will continue to exhaust our internal investigation until we know the facts of the case and can provide answers for the employees and customers involved in this incident,” she said.