This is interesting; I wonder how Jewish groups and groups promoting freedom of religion will respond.

It seems like there are valid points to be made on both sides.

On the one hand, I could imagine a flight attendant being freaked out when the man would not follow reasonable instructions.

On the other hand, the article reports that once he had completely prayer:

"...he explained that he couldn't interrupt his religious ritual and wasn't trying to be rude. But the attendants summoned a guard to remove him, said Brafman, a writer who had been visiting New York to talk to publishers."

It seems that by the time they removed him, he had already stopped his prayer and was no longer causing a problem.