Ahmad denied on flight an unopened can of soda.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: An account given by an Indian American Muslim, Tahera Ahmad, about being left in tears after she was denied an unopened can of soda due to faith-based discrimination on a United Airlines flight has ignited a fervor of indignation on social media.
A Muslim chaplain and director of interfaith engagement at Northwestern University, Ahmad, 31, was traveling Friday from Chicago to Washington for a conference promoting dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youths and was wearing a traditional headscarf, or hijab.
The incident unfolded after Ahmad requested an unopened diet soda for hygienic reasons, which a flight attendant refused, claiming it was against policy.
When Ahmad noticed the same attendant serving a man an unopened can of beer and questioned whether the attendant was discriminating against her, the United employee responded: “We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane.”
After Ahmad’s inquiry, the flight attendant proceeded to open the can of beer, duly informing the man it was so he wouldn’t use it as a weapon.
Ahmad, flabbergasted at what had just transpired, turned to her fellow passengers for support, but was only met with one reply.
“You Moslem [sic], you need to shut the fuck up,” retorted a man who was sitting across the aisle. He then looked her dead in the eye and intoned: “Yes, you know you would use it as a weapon, so shut the fuck up.”
“I felt the hate in his voice and his raging eyes. I can’t help but cry on this plane because I thought people would defend me and say something. Some people just shook their heads in dismay,” Ahmad wrote, ending her post with the hashtag, #IslamophobiaISREAL.
A statement from United Airlines called the incident a “misunderstanding,” and claimed flight attendant who served Ahmad had tried to accommodate her soda request “several times.”
Ahmad was less than impressed with United’s response to her mortifying ordeal.
“Unfortunately United has dismissed my entire narrative and trivialized it to a can of soda,” she wrote on Facebook Sunday morning.
At the very least, Ahmad told the Chicago Sun-Times that she received an apology from the flight attendant, saying that the United employee had “acknowledged it was unethical and said he never should have said anything.”
The Indian American was recognized at the White House last year “as a leading Muslim female in the United States” during Women’s History Month, according to Northwestern University — where she serves as a chaplain and director of interfaith engagement.
Having been born in India and grown up in Morton Grove, Illinois, Ahmad told CNN that she said she has been spat on and had her hijab ripped off in Islamophobic encounters after the September 11 terror attacks. She also went on to inform the news network that her goal is not to go after United Airlines.
“This is about bigotry and racism and our country is going through a very difficult time right now. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and so many others worked so hard …” Ahmad exclaimed, breaking into tears. “They strove so hard so that Americans would not mistreat each other on the basis of the color of their skin or religious or ethnic background but I guess we’re still on that journey.”
4 Comments
Islam: the religion that tells everyone what to do. The “or else” component is a blue-white flash followed by a rain of body parts.
All u suckers trying to prove that the airlines are right in not giving her a Can and handing over a Beer Can to another man on the plane….how the fuck is this not Discrimination!… Stop with the lame ass excuses of how sharp razor was used in 9/11..Y does the fuckin airline keep Soda can in a plane after 9/11? and if Muslim Brotherhood is funding someone who is a “TERRORIST” then how does she roam around in public without being arrested…It’s cuz there is no fucking proof that she is wrong anywhere U prick! Don’t pick sides..can’t u bastards live in peace for once?
The tab of the soda can is razor sharp and can be used as a weapon.The highjackers aircraft on 9/11 used box cutters which are only a little larger. There was no insult from the attendant it was from another passenger.
Tahera Ahamad invited a holocaust denier to speak at Northwestern. She was invited to speak at a conference funded by the Muslim Brotherhood. She is friends with the Imam of the Boston Bomber Mosque which has so far produced 4 terrorists. She is one link away from Tsarenaev
That is the company she keeps