Tahera Ahmad, a chaplain, who works at Northwestern University as director of interfaith engagement, spoke last night of the ‘disgusting behaviour’ of the airplane staff.
She was on board a flight last night and asked for an unopened can of Diet Coke, which the attendant refused to give her due to the airline’s apparent policy.
Tahera then noticed the same attendant giving an unopened can of beer to someone else, and confronted her.
According to Tahera, the attendant said: "We are unauthorised to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane."
She then allegedly gave the Muslim woman a can of Diet Coke, which she immediately opened so Tahera didn’t 'use it as a weapon'.
Shocked, Ahmad turned to her fellow passengers to ask if they had witnessed the ‘discriminatory and disgusting’ incident.
One of them told told her ‘you Muslim, you need to shut the f**k up’, as he also believed that she could use the can as a weapon.
Ahmad then burst into tears, explaining that she’d been expecting people to defend her, but no-one had stepped up during the Islamophobic attack.
She spoke about her ordeal on Facebook, and her post soon went viral.
Her facebook post:
I am sitting on a United airlines flight in the air 30,000ft above and I am in tears of humiliation from discrimination. The flight attendant asked me what I would like to drink and I requested a can of diet coke. She brought me a can that was open so I requested an unopened can due to hygienic reasons. She said no one has consumed from the drink, but I requested an unopened can. She responded,
"Well I'm sorry I just can't give you an unopened can so no diet coke for you." She then brought the man sitting next to me a can of UNOPENED beer. So I asked her again why she refused to give me an UNOPENED can of diet coke. She said, "We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a WEAPON on the plane." So I told her that she was clearly discriminating against me because she gave the man next to me an unopened can of beer. She looked at his can, quickly grabbed it and opened it and said, "it's so you don't use it as a weapon." Apphauled at her behavior I asked people around me if they witnessed this discriminatory and disgusting behavior and the man sitting in an aisle across from me yelled out to me, "you Moslem, you need to shut the F** up." I said, "what?!" He then leaned over from his seat, looked me straight in the eyes and said, "yes you know you would use it as a WEAPON so shut the f**k 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. #IslamophobiaISREAL
There has been outrage on social media as regards the discrimination, and many have sworn to boycott United Airlines until an apology is given.
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