Reacting swiftly to allegations of discrimination, Northwest Airlines apologized to 40 local Muslims on Wednesday for barring them from a plane in Germany on their return trip from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

The airline said it will reimburse the pilgrims for the additional costs for flights and "reasonable" costs for accommodations.

"To our knowledge, there was no security issue and this was not a profiling issue," said the official, Andrea Newman, the senior vice president for government relations for Northwest Airlines, in Washington, D.C. "We try very hard to make sure that everyone is treated the same, and this is an important community to Northwest, as are all communities." [Link]