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Gingrich: Imams should have been arrested

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told an audience in New Hampshire Muslim clerics pulled off a plane for praying should have been charged criminally.

Gingrich made the remark Friday night, as he delivered the keynote speech at the Manchester Republican City Committee Christmas dinner, the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader reported.

"Those six people should have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists," Gingrich said. "And the crew of the U.S. airplane should have been invited to the White House and congratulated for being correct in the protection of citizens."

The imams, who had been attending a conference in Minneapolis, were pulled off a US Air flight to Phoenix after other passengers said they had been acting suspicious. They were questioned by the FBI for several hours and then released.

Their suspicious behavior apparently consisted of reports that they had prayed in Arabic and that they were not sitting together but had walked around to talk to each other.

Gingrich said last month the United States might have to accept new curbs of First Amendment rights to fight terrorism.