Another day, another American airline drama. And this time, instead of battling it out with the Gulf airlines over charges of corruption, it seems that United Airlines has a bigger charge to contend with: Islamaphobia.
Tahera Ahmad, a Muslim-American chaplain at Northwestern University, claimed to have requested an unopened can of soda on a recent United Airlines flight. However, the flight attendant would not give her an unopened can saying that, "We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon."
Tahera Ahmad wears a hijab.
The passenger sitting next to her was given an unopened can of soda and when Tahera Ahmad asked about the discrepancy in service, the flight attendant said that the unopened can of soda could be used as a weapon. When Tahera Ahmad pointed out that this was discrimination, another passenger on the flight yelled that, “You Muslim, you need to shut the f** up,” said a passenger sitting across the aisle from her, according to Ms Ahmad. “Yes you know you would use it as a weapon so shut the f** up.”
The incident went viral when Tahera Ahmad posted the following message to her Facebook page. It was shared by over 8,000 people.
The flight attendant who refused to serve Tahera Ahmad apologized for the other passenger's remarks. Tahera Ahmad told the Chicago Sun-Times that the United employee “acknowledged it was unethical and said he never should have said anything”.
A United spokesman Charles Hobart declined to say if the airline had a policy against unopened cans.
In a statement, United said that the attendant “attempted several times to accommodate Ms Ahmad’s beverage request” and said that it was a “misunderstanding”.
In response, Tahera Ahmad said that she was "truly disappointed by the latest statement by United Airlines." She continued, saying that,
"As a Premier frequent flyer at United, I have been served unopened canned beverages many times and I have followed United procedures in all of my travels. It is ridiculing to my integrity to dismiss the discrimatory behavior towards me. I have dedicated my life to peace, infact I was on this United flight to promote social justice activism, just and peaceful conversations between Israelis and Palestinians at Kids4Peace. It is truly disheartening when the discrimination of Americans as myself who are working hard everyday to promote dialogue and understanding is disregarded and trivialized."
With hashtags from #UnitedforTara to #IslamaphobiaIsReal, the Twitterverse has had a range of reactions, from support of Tahera Ahmad to discriminatory remarks against Muslims, with a good dose of anti-airline humor mixed in.
Many users are calling for a United Airlines boycott until the airline properly responds.