A simple request for an unopened can of Diet Coke on a United Airlines flight left Tahera Ahmad in tears.
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 youth. She was wearing a headscarf, or hijab.
For hygienic reasons, she asked for an unopened can of soda, she said. The flight attendant told her that she could not give her one but then handed an unopened can of beer to a man seated nearby. Ahmad questioned the flight attendant.
“We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane,” she recalled the flight attendant telling her.
When Ahmad told the flight attendant she was being discriminated against, the attendant abruptly opened the beer can.
“It’s so you don’t use it as a weapon,” Ahmad said she was told.
Shocked, Ahmad asked other passengers if they had seen what happened.
A man sitting across the aisle turned to her and yelled, “You Muslim, you need to shut the f— up,” she said.
“What?”
The man leaned over, looked her in the eyes and said: “Yes, you know you would use it as a weapon. So shut the f— up,” according to Ahmad.
“I felt the hate in his voice and his raging eyes,” Ahmad wrote on Facebook while the plane was still in flight. “I can’t help but cry … because I thought people would defend me and say something. Some people just shook their heads in dismay.”
After her Facebook post, people took to social media in support of Ahmad using the #unitedfortahera hashtag. Some pledged to boycott United.
Suhaib Webb, a prominent Muslim American imam, tweeted, “I’m asking all of you to let @united know that you are disgusted with this bigotry.” He also tweeted a photo of a can of Diet Coke over #unitedfortahera.
This article originally appeared in CNN.
I also have been refused to get an unopened can during a flight – so what. The different is that I am not a Muslim and so I don't make a fuzz about an alleged discrimination. Get out of your victim role.
and saying to that woman "shut the F up" is a good thing????
No, it's not especially a good thing, but it was a passenger who said that not a United employee. There is a difference. BTW, It probably was the sentiment of most of the passengers on the plane.
the difference is that no one tells you ,,you can use it as weapon
They don't give unopened cans on planes or sometimes in stadiums because the cans can be thrown and cause serious injury. I have never gotten an unopened can of soda on an airplane. This woman is spoiled and she is invoking discrimination over a can of Diet Coke. Meanwhile Yazidis are being sold in slave markets in Syria by her co-religionists. It's really repulsive and shows a great lack of discernment in the Muslim community.
On behalf of the people in America that are not paranoid and rude, our apologies.
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