Jewish Teen's Prayers Cause Terrorism Hysteria on Airplane

A Jewish teenager, attempting to say his morning prayers, caused a terrorism alert on a US Airways airplane Thursday. The plane had left New York and was going to Kentucky. Instead, it was redirected to Philadelphia, grounded, and surrounded by local and federal authorities, including dogs sniffing for bombs.

The boy had taken out his tefillin, as is stated in the Jewish Torah that every male 13 and over is supposed to do daily as part of his prayer time. Tefillin are two leather straps attached to small boxes which contain tiny scrolls of biblical passages. The tefillin wrap around the arm and head and serve as a reminder of being spiritually bound to God's laws. The morning prayers are supposed to be done within hours of sunrise.

The Jewish Torah is similar to the Christian Old Testament. In both, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Bible, NIV)

Hysteria demonstrates Americans' attentiveness to terrorism threats; but also lack of knowledge toward faith-based traditions

That the boy and his sister were questioned by authorities is not being cited as an incident of anti-Semitism. According to a report by Associated Press, the consensus from most people interviewed was that we can't be too careful about what is going to get pulled out of a box or suitcase on airplanes anymore. People can use innocent looking things to avoid suspicion.

However, one rabbi who spoke to the FBI stated it's also a show of modern-day unawareness toward biblically based activities and commandments. With today's interpretation of "separation of church and state" leading people to believe that prayer isn't allowed in public (not true), Americans aren't as accustomed to seeing prayer rituals carried out. Nor are so many reading their Torahs and Bibles to learn about it.

Rabbi Benjamin Belch of New York's Yeshiva University told AP that people should be aware of ignorance as well as aware of terrorism.

The teenager was never under arrest. It will be hard to determine how to remain terror-alert while being culturally sensitive.

Source:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100122/ap_on_re_us/us_flight_diverted