You Moslem – you need to shut the f--- up!
No-‘can’-do on flight was bias – woman
UNITED AIRLINES has been accused of discrimination after one of its flight attendants allegedly refused to give an unopened can of Diet Coke to a Muslim woman passenger.
Tahera Ahmad said in a post on her Facebook page that the flight attendant was “clearly discriminating against me” after giving the male passenger seated next to her an unopened beer.
Ahmad, the Muslim chaplain at Northwestern University outside Chicago, said that in the ensuing argument, one of her fellow passengers told her: “You Moslem, you need to shut the f--- up.”
The incident happened as she asked for a can of Diet Coke on a flight from Chicago to Washington on Friday. She was traveling to attend an event for the interfaith group Kids 4 Peace to promote peaceful conversations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Ahmad, 31, was presented with a soda that had already been opened but said she wanted an unopened can for hygienic reasons.
But she was told by the flight attendant: “Well, I’m sorry. I just can’t give you an unopened can, so no Diet Coke for you.”
Ahmad noted that the man next to her had just been handed an unopened beer and said she was being discriminated against. The flight attendant then quickly opened the man’s beer can.
She was then told: “We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people, because they may use it as a weapon on the plane.”
Asking other passengers for help, she was then told to “shut the f--- up,” Ahmad claims.
“I can’t help but cry on this plane because I thought people would defend me and say something,” she wrote in the post. “Some people just shook their heads in dismay. ?#?IslamophobiaISREAL”?
Her post had received nearly 8,000 shares as of Sunday, as the Facebook page and the story have gone viral. Some Twitter users have pledged to boycott the airline.
United said in a statement issued Saturday night the flight attendant on Shuttle America Flight 3504 attempted “several times” to accommodate Ahmad’s request and there was an initial misunderstanding.
They also said the flight’s crew talked to Ahmad after the flight arrived and the airline further reached out Saturday afternoon to apologize to her.
“We look forward to having the opportunity to welcome Ms. Ahmad back,” United said.
Ahmad said she is still waiting for a “written sincere apology for the pain and hurt I experienced as a result of the discrimination and hateful words towards me.”