KSTP in Minneapolis has been hyping this since at least Tuesday afternoon, when the first e-mail about it arrived in our inbox. It finally aired tonight so I feel obliged to post, even though there’s no denying it’s a letdown. The one intriguing tidbit has to do with the State Department’s interest; presumably there’s an expired visa somewhere in the mix. They didn’t pursue it so we’ll have to guess.

The part about Shahin having led a seminar on “Imams and Media” at the conference two days earlier is noteworthy, too. Or would be, if it were true. Which it isn’t. His photo does appear above a description of that topic on page 4 of the conference program, but the schedule on page 3 says it was someone else who led the discussion.

Not a huge deal — the subject was clearly fresh in his mind, even if he wasn’t moderating the panel — but sloppy reporting nonetheless.

There’s an “extended interview” with the mystery passenger on the KSTP website, which is worth checking if only to see what qualifies as “extended” in Minneapolis. He’s pretty emphatic about the imams having been treated respectfully by the cops, though, so I suppose it’s worth checking for that, too.

Click the image to watch.

Update: Forgot to mention — did you notice on page 3 of the program who led the discussion of “Imams and Politics”? See-Dub comments.