Forgot The Box-cutter, But Not The Prayer Book

Benjamin Baines, Jr. is in a world of trouble, since the hollowed out book he uses to stash his drugs went through a TSA X-ray machine at Tampa International and, lo and behold, a box-cutter was stashed inside.

"I'm moving to Las Vegas and I forgot the box-cutter was in the book," Baines told authorities, according to the Tampa Tribune's Web site, TBO.

That's about as reasonable an excuse as the guy who said, "Sorry, I thought it was my nose" when he was caught picking someone else's nose. Baines was at an airport; that might have sent a reminder. On his way to X-ray, he would have passed numerous signs saying what was prohibited, including, of all things, box-cutters. He would have seen the X-ray machine and the TSA agents screening.

Bells? Any bells going off? He would like us to believe that no, he just plain forgot that he was trying to pull off a Mohammed Atta.

Am I jumping to conclusions? Well, his backpack contained a few books that didn't have pages cut out, including one called The Noble Qur'an ("The English translation of the meanings and commentary") and another called The Prophet's Prayer. Amazon doesn't have the latter yet, but you can view it here: It's a detailed tutorial on every aspect of Muslim praying, including:

STANDING IN PRAYER

The Prayer of a Sick Person in a Sitting Position
Prayer on a Ship
Sitting and Standing in the Night Prayer (Tahajjud)
Prayer Wearing Shoes and the Command to do so
Prayer on the Pulpit (Minbar)
The Sutrah, and the Obligation to have one
What Breaks the Prayer
Prohibition of Prayer Facing the Grave

It goes on and on, including quiet prayers, Friday prayers and how to assume the position (sujood); it is not the sort of book someone who isn't serious about Islam would read.

As near as I can tell, there isn't a "Praying on Planes" chapter, though -- with a good defense attorney, that must might get Baines off.

He faces up to ten years in prison on the federal offense of trying to smuggle a weapon onto an aircraft. Great. While he's there, Saudi-funded Wahhabi radicals will push him further and further over the edge ...

... unless he starts reading that other book that was in his backpack. You might have heard of it. It's called The Bible.

hat-tip: Hugh Hewitt