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Mauritanian hijacker gets in hot water
By JUAN MANUEL PARDELLAS, Associated Press Writer

TENERIFE, Canary Islands — A fast-thinking pilot with passengers in cahoots fooled a hijacker by braking hard upon landing, then accelerating to knock the man down. When he fell, flight attendants threw boiling water in his face, and about 10 people pounced on him, Spanish officials said Friday.

The Air Mauritania Boeing 737 ... was hijacked by a lone gunman brandishing two pistols ....

The hijacking alarmed Spanish officials because a trial of 29 people accused in the Madrid terrorist bombings of 2004 had begun the same day in Madrid. But the man's motives were not terrorism; he wanted the plane to fly to France so he could request political asylum, said Mohamed Ould Mohamed Cheikh, Mauritania's top police official.

"We were afraid. We thought it was people from al-Qaida or the Algerian GSPC who were going to cut our throats," said Aicha Mint Sidi, a 45-year-old woman who was on the plane. The GSPC is a Muslim extremist group.

"I trembled during and after the hijacking. I thought the plane was going to blow up any minute, either in mid-air or on landing," said another passenger, Dahi Ould Ali, 52. Both spoke after returning to Nouakchott.

The hijacker has been identified as Mohamed Abderraman, a 32-year-old Mauritanian, said an official with the Spanish Interior Ministry office on Tenerife, another of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago. He spoke under ground rules barring publication of his name. Mauritania has said the hijacker was a Moroccan from the Western Sahara.
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The guy's name is Mohamed, he is from Morocco and he hijaked a plane, presumably to go to Paris. No mention of whether the hijaker was a Muslam.

Let's see if Reuters can clear this up since the AP didn't make it clear:

Mauritania plane passengers beat up hijacker
Ben Harding

MADRID (Reuters) - Passengers on a hijacked Air Mauritania plane ended the ordeal when they stormed the cockpit and beat up the lone gunman after the aircraft landed in Spain's Canary Islands on Thursday night, Spanish police said.

As armed police surrounded the Boeing 737 on the runway, five passengers and the co-pilot burst into the cockpit and knocked the hijacker to the ground before beating him up, a police spokesman said.

...

Spanish police could not corroborate reports from a Mauritanian source on Thursday who said the pilot had deliberately braked hard on landing, knocking the hijacker off his feet and that he had then been jumped on by passengers.

...

Passengers said they had been terrified when they realized their internal flight from the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott to the port of Nouadhibou had been seized.

...

Police have not revealed the hijacker's motive but Spanish media have reported he was seeking political asylum in France.
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Ok, Reuters doesn't even print the guy's name, Mohamed, so it looks like the AP has more information so lets look again at what the AP said:

But the man's motives were not terrorism; he wanted the plane to fly to France so he could request political asylum....

"We were afraid. We thought it was people from al-Qaida or the Algerian GSPC who were going to cut our throats," said Aicha Mint Sidi, a 45-year-old woman who was on the plane...

"I trembled during and after the hijacking. I thought the plane was going to blow up any minute, either in mid-air or on landing," said another passenger...

Ok, so Mohamed from Morocco, the *probably* muslim hijacker (I know I am going out on a limb here, seeing as Mohamed is a traditional Islamic name and Morroco is a largely muslim country and France is being overrun by Muslim immigrants) - in HIJACKING A PLANE - making the passangers fear for the lives, did not intend to engage in terrorism: "But the man's motives were not terrorism; he wanted the plane to fly to France so he could request political asylum"

Oh. Ok. In that case, no harm no foul, right? I mean, he didn't intend terrorism. His motive was not terrorism.

That's some bang up reporting. Thanks Ap. Thanks Reuters.