A Muslim woman denied an unopened Diet Coke on United Airlines, allegedly over fears she’d use the canned beverage as a “weapon,” says the incident is just the latest in which she has been treated with suspicion, physically attacked or otherwise discriminated against because of her religion.
The woman, Northwestern University chaplain Tahera Ahmad, also says that she has been inundated with threats since news of the incident went viral over the weekend.
“Since 9/11, I’ve experienced discrimination many times,” Ahmad said in an interview. “I’ve been spat on, had my hijab pulled off, been detained for hours by the TSA and missed speaking engagements in front of hundreds of people. … This is not about a can of soda, it’s about an environment which is encouraging people to be demeaning, bigoted and hurtful.”
This past Friday, as Ahmad was traveling to speak at a conference promoting dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youth, she requested an unopened soft drink from the attendant on her United Airlines flight, only to be denied the drink on the grounds that she might “use it as a weapon.” After complaining, she was allegedly told by another passenger across the aisle on her flight, “You Muslim, you need to shut the fuck up. You know you would use it as a weapon, so shut the fuck up.”
After her flight, Ahmad wrote an emotional Facebook post about her experience, a post that has since been the subject of news reports from Britain to Australia.
Ahmad, 31, was raised in Morton Grove, Illinois and is an associate chaplain and director of interfaith engagement at Northwestern. In 2014, she was honored in a ceremony at the White House as a “leading Muslim woman” in America for her academic achievement and community building, as well as for working on behalf of the U.S. State Department conducting workshops on interfaith relations and cultural awareness. Despite this, she says she has not been immune to the rising tide of discrimination and suspicion facing Muslims in America today.
“I do a lot of speaking engagements about Islam, Islamophobia, women’s rights, and I believe in just and peaceful dialogue,” she said. “But the type of hatred and discrimination I’ve been experiencing is not coming out of a vacuum.”
Nearly a decade and a half after 9/11, documented hate crimes targeting Muslims in America are five times higher than they were in the year 2000. In recent months, there have been high-profile incidents of mosque burnings, assaults and a murder, which many believed to have been motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment. Last week, anti-Muslim activists, many of them brandishing assault rifles, staged a demonstration outside a Phoenix, Arizona mosque during Friday services.
While FBI hate-crime statistics cite a figure of 13.7 percent for the proportion of anti-religious hate crimes targeting Muslims in the United States, this figure is widely believed to be understated. Many Muslim immigrants are either newly arrived in the United States and thus unfamiliar with how and why they should report bias incidents, or they say they have become fearful of taking their concerns to the FBI given the treatment of their community by federal law enforcement agencies since 9/11.
In recent years, studies have shown that Muslim Americans are among the most negatively viewed groups in the United States, with a 2014 Zogby poll showing that only 27 percent of Americans have a positive impression of Muslims, down from 35 percent in 2010. A Carnegie Mellon study published in 2013 also showed that Muslim Americans are subjected to systematic hiring discrimination.
Since going public with her own complaints of discrimination, Ahmad says she has been targeted with an avalanche of threatening messages and phone calls.
“One person called me, at first pretending to work for United Airlines and acting very professionally, before suddenly starting to threaten me and making sexually explicit remarks,” Ahmad said. “I asked him if he was really calling from United, and he said, ‘What, you don’t trust me? You want to see my dick, you want to suck my dick? I got a camera phone, I know you Muslims like that,’” Ahmad said. “I just hung up after that.”
After her Facebook post generated a social media firestorm and was picked up by international news media, United Airlines issued a boilerplate statement on their website calling the incident a “misunderstanding” and saying that they “welcome[d] Ms. Ahmad back.” The statement did not acknowledge the incident as discrimination, nor did it mention the hateful reaction of at least one passenger, which United staff are alleged to have witnessed without intervening.
The airline did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
For Ahmad, the incident has less to do with her treatment on the flight than with the increasing discrimination she and other Muslims living in the United States face on a daily basis. Much of this, she says, stems from sensationalized news media coverage conflating ordinary people with foreign terrorist groups such as Islamic State, as well as from opportunistic politicians seeking to ratchet up fear of Muslim Americans to gain votes.
“I think the overwhelming majority of Americans are good people, they just need to hear our story and understand, instead of being misled by what they see on television,” Ahmad says. “Muslims are doctors, firefighters, engineers. We’re people who help build our country. We’re not ISIS and we’re not terrorists.”
Despite being upset about her own experience, Ahmad says that far worse discrimination is experienced by others on a regular basis, particularly women, with their treatment seldom acknowledged. “As Americans, we need to promote a culture that recognizes the pain of discrimination and bigotry, whether it’s toward Muslims, African Americans or other minority groups dealing with such struggles,” said Ahmad. “Its hurtful and frustrating when people who are trying to do what’s right and promote dialogue are mistreated and silenced like this, and, unfortunately, it happens all the time.”
Photo: Facebook
there are already so many reports that she lied, she pulled the victim card like most muslims do …. why are there no reporters from any MSM doing anything ?
http://www.redstate.com/diary/lifeofgrace/2015/06/07/muslim-womans-fake-hate-diet-coke-course-lie/
http://www.topix.com/forum/business/airlines/TB3E47EKPP20AJT31
http://shoebat.com/2015/06/05/she-lied-says-united-airlines-witness-to-diet-coke-incident-involving-muslim-woman-who-got-a-flight-attendant-fired-for-alleged-discrimination/
http://conservativetribune.com/diet-coke-muslim-lady/
http://www.discussionist.com/1016107324
http://savvystews.com/2015/06/what-really-happened-on-that-united-flight-with-the-muslim-passenger/
https://twitter.com/AuntyNeville664/status/607729502077263873/photo/1
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/06/fake-hate-cair-activist-lied-made-up-diet-coke-abuse-story/
http://woundedamericanwarrior.com/more-doubt-cast-on-story-of-diet-coke-lady-who-cried-discrimination-against-her-for-being-muslim/#
http://www.dailystormer.com/united-airlines-cowardly-bows-before-moslem-hoaxster/
http://rantsofasassystew.com/2015/06/leaked-e-mail-response-from-ceo-bryan-bedford-regarding-tahera-ahmad-and-united-airlines-alleged-soda-incident/
https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/story-muslim-woman-insulted-flight-attendant-hoax_967298.html
http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/10/hey-was-that-woman-really-denied-an-unopened-diet-coke-on-a-plane-because-shes-a-muslim/
http://www.760kfmb.com/story/29286854/muslim-woman-claiming-anti-islam-bigotry-story-a-hoax
http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20150609/COLUMN0303/150609480#.VXh-PkbdetN
Remember the story where the “muslin” woman claimed she was denied a can of soda because she could do damage to people with it by a flight attendant? http://abcnews.go.com/US/flight-attendant-disciplined-muslim-woman-faced-discrimination-flight/story?id=31505200 Well the real story comes out. This woman lied and a passenger has come forward and told what really happened. This woman is suing the airlines and caused the flight attendant to be moved to a new plane. N ow my take on this is this POS needs to be deported, yes thats right kicked out of this country for trying to milk this country all in the name of her Allah God. Will she be kicked out no but I hope she is arrested for making a false police report and fined and jail and I hope the airline and that flight attendant sues her big time and she is placed on a no fly list for the rest of her life if allowed to live in this country after this fraud. ABC you better learn to do your research before posting false information.
I wonder if The Intercept will update the article with the other side of the story. After all, they call out the MSM every time for relying on one side of the story.
It is so sad how Isis members
Dressed as Moslems could deceive all the world, they are killing and tourturing only Moslems in Iraq and Syria. I urge the American government and thinkers to stop this discrimination against Moslem people.
I have yet to read one article about this subject that uses an additional source to corroborate the allegations. Has anyone come forth or any journalist done their job to see if the story actually went down this way. These regional carriers are low paid minimum wage workers, not premeditated racists. We are now a society that thinks the worst of people without actual investigation. Doesn’t anyone else think the lady was acting like a pain in the rear end. You are flying in coach sometimes they don’t give you any drink. This is such a non story, surprised to see it on the intercept. Thought this site had higher integrity. I already stopped reading cnn.com due to the amount of pure garbage posted. Can someone recommend a site where I can avoid these types of stories?
“Northwestern University chaplain” or “Muslim Chaplain” or “Chaplain”
Why in the hell wasn’t any iteration of “Chaplain” in the headline of this piece?
I’m all for editorial independence, and would rather spend my time reading about it here, but I find myself repeatedly seeing essentially the same story highlighted with a more attention grabbing headline – even when it’s someone else just linking to the this same story with pertinent information included that was left out of the headline at The Intercept.
A number of years ago (post 9/11) after a flight where I asked for and was given an unopened can of soda.
On my return flight with the same airline, I was refused because of the samecpolicy stated as the reason for this woman’s request being denied.
Since I couldn’t understand the seeming lack of uniformity in applying this policy on one trip and not the next, as a sort of ad-hoc experiment I’ve been asking for an unopened can on just about every flight I’ve taken (around 25) in the last 8 years.
Other than 3 anomololies (including the first time I asked), my request has always been refused.
Since I’m a white male, and we all know that white males cannot be discriminated against (it’s probably my white privilege at work), I think it’s fair to say that this had less to do with discrimination and more to do with an unevenly applied policy getting caught up in one woman’s hyper-vigilant efforts to discover anti-Muslim bias anywhere she can find it.
Their own silence condemns them!
This is the wrong approach to anti-Islamic sentiment. I am no fan of the religion (see below), but the individual Muslim stands accused, as far as I’m concerned, of nothing more than believing something that is wrong. As Americans, we all have the right to believe in stupid things – some below will tell you I have some stupid ideas myself. Think how many otherwise good people are out there who think the War on Drugs is a good idea – do we discriminate against them for such deadly foolhardiness? So I can’t “condemn” people for being Muslims, nor demand that they exercise their civic duty to denounce terrorism more than anybody else. I think our ire should be reserved for the religion itself, and even so we should be the first to recognize that for every terrorist there are a million Muslims who do no such thing, and many thousands of genuine heroes. We don’t condemn the people when we believe their religion doesn’t inspire them; we condemn the religion because we believe it doesn’t inspire people.
So you can justify discrimination just by telling Muslims”you don’t speak against terrorists”
I am an active duty marine who has served my country for 14 years and I am absolutely disgusted to what this country has become over the years. I am ashamed on behalf of those people who caused this woman the inconvenience and hatred that she faced over nothing. What a shame that we label Muslims as terrorists when less than 1% are the extremists. Absolutely disgusted. I hope this woman gets her justice
If America has the mind and thoughts like Mr. Bruce McCann, then bigotry, racism and discrimination will be eradicated for good. An active Marine and posted a non bias comment like this !! Unbelievable ! On behalf of Our country, the United States of America and on behalf of American Muslims, I salute Mr. Bruce McCann and pray for him and his family to live in peace and prosperity all their lives. It is really a shame to label all Muslims as terrorists, as Mr. McCann said. If this was in my hand, I shall make United Airlines out of Business. But God the Almighty is, All Seeing, All knowing, All Listening. Lets wait and watch The God’s judgement.
WHERE ARE MY COMMENTS ? THE INTERCEPT.
“Crybaby of the Week”
If muslims accept this now their children will be next. I’d have berated the other passenger.
‘Cry baby’
If Muslims accept this now without challenge – your children will be next
Just one problem with this story. It wasn’t a United flight, employee or passenger involved. This was a Shuttle America flight, United only sold the ticket.
They’re branded as “United Express”
If so-called moderate Muslims spoke more openly against extremist Muslims in their midst, and against their criminal actions and murderous behavior, there might be less discrimination against them. Their own silence condemns them. After all, the murderers among them claim to act in the name of Allah and of the Muslim religion. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
So if the impetus is on every Muslim to denounce extremism, is it up to every Christian to denounce the Catholic Church’s long history of domination and pedophilia? Or perhaps All Christians should apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church’s treatment of Natives in North America through the residential schools? No? that’s how ridiculous your comment is. By asking every Muslim to denounce something that has nothing to do with them you’re automatically assuming them to be guilty. The onus is on your prove why, not on them to denounce every action that is done by the 1 billion+ Muslims on the planet.
If people like Suzanne speak out against USA’s misadventures in ‘Eyeraq’ then the world wouldn’t hate our country and we’d all be safer
Really?
So, the USA was loved in the middle east prior to Iraq?
Al-Azhar: Islamic State Is Corrupt And “A Danger To Islam.” Lebanese paper The Daily Star reported that Al-Azhar’s Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam, Egypt’s highest religious authority, denounced the Islamic State as a threat to Islam and said that the group both violates Sharia law and humanitarian law: “[They] give an opportunity for those who seek to harm us, to destroy us and interfere in our affairs with the [pretext of a] call to fight terrorism.” [The Daily Star, 8/13/14]
Arab League: “Strongly Denounced” The “Crimes Against Humanity” Carried Out By The Islamic State. On August 11, Nabil al-Arabi, the Arab League Chief, denounced acts committed by the Islamic State in Iraq as “crimes against humanity,” demanding that they be brought to justice. According to Al Arabiya News, he said in a statement that he “strongly denounced the crimes, killings, dispossession carried out by the terrorist (ISIS) against civilians and minorities in Iraq that have affected Christians in Mosul and Yazidis.” [Al Arabiya News, 8/11/14]
Turkey’s Top Cleric: Islamic State’s Threats Are “Hugely Damaging,” “Truly Awful.” Turkey’s highest ranking cleric, Mehmet Gormez, decried the Islamic State’s declaration of a “caliphate” and argued that the statements were damaging to the Muslim community, according to Reuters:
CAIR Repeatedly Condemned The Islamic State As “Un-Islamic And Morally Repugnant.” In a July 7 statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called the terrorist group “un-Islamic and morally repugnant,” noted that the Islamic State’s “human rights abuses on the ground are well-documented,” and called on other Muslim community leaders to speak out against the violence. CAIR reiterated the condemnation of the Islamic State as “both un-Islamic and morally repugnant” on August 11, and on August 21, CAIR once again condemned the group, calling the killing of American journalist James Foley “gruesome and barbaric”:
The Muslim Council Of Great Britain: “Violence Has No Place In Religion.” The Muslim Council of Great Britain condemned the Islamic State’s actions and expressed that they do not represent Sunni Muslims, according to The Independent. Shuja Shafi, a member of the council also said: “Violence has no place in religion, violence has no religion. It is prohibited for people to present themselves for destruction.” [The Independent, 7/11/14]
The Islamic Society of North America: The Islamic State’s Actions “Are To Be Denounced And Are In No Way Representative Of What Islam Actually Teaches. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) released a statement denouncing the Islamic State “for its attacks on Iraq’s religious minorities and the destruction of their places of worship.” ISNA President Imam Mohamed Magid said, “ISIS actions against religious minorities in Iraq violate the Quranic teaching, ‘Let there be no compulsion in religion’ (Surat al-Baqara 2:256),” adding, “Their actions are to be denounced and are in no way representative of what Islam actually teaches.” [The Islamic Society of North America, 8/9/14]
100 Sunni And Shiite U.K. Imams: The Islamic State Is An “Illegitimate, Vicious Group.” As the Huffington Post reported, 100 Sunni and Shiite Imams from the U.K. came together to produce a video denouncing the Islamic State, releasing a statement that they wanted to “come together to emphasise the importance of unity in the UK and to decree ISIS as an illegitimate, vicious group who do not represent Islam in any way.”
Muslim Public Affairs Council: Condemned The Islamic State And Called For “Stand Against Extremism.” On August 20, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) released a statement condemning “the barbaric execution of American Journalist James Foley by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).” MPAC urged “all people of conscience to take a stand against extremism” and offered condolences to Foley’s family. MPAC also noted the importance of countering ISIS and other extremist groups by working “to empower the mainstream and relegate extremists to the irrelevance they deserve.” [Muslim Public Affairs Council, 8/20/14]
want more?
Yes, she is a racist and a sexist. Anyone who defends her is also a racist and a sexist. Now all you racists and sexists, please leave the country. you see, she wants special treatment because she is first a woman and second a muslim. Sorry, Everybody gets their cans opened on a plane. Just because America is a matriarchal society doesn’t mean woman go first.And she teaches people? There is the crime. A brown bag over her head would be more appropriate in public settings.
Oh dear, I hope this isn’t a serious post. Minimally, you missed the part about the flight attendant giving an unopened beverage to a man seated nearby. I’m not even going to touch the rest of your comment.
Hope so, too. Forget diet coke…Gene and Louise seem to have been imbibing something much stronger; otherwise, there’s no excuse for them.
Was the man visually associate with an ideology that crashes planes into buildings, and makes the news every day for widespread global murdering of unbelievers, as pescribed in the source material?
I think the man was “visually associated” with a group of people who enslaved people from another continent and then subjected them to sub-human conditions based on prescriptions in the source material he believes in. I think he should be fucking locked up before he can enslave anybody else.
Do you want people to take you seriously?
Mayble you should refrain from showing your complete lack of any point with any value or bearing on the topic at hand.
Also, every race of person walking this earth has just as much association with the enslavement of other humans.
Point of fact, arabs (the original muslims) have much more history of enslavement than any European ever could.
The Koran instructs them to enslave non-Muslim women and children while obviously killing the men.
You are a silly, silly person.
I just wonder who you are “visually associated” with.
Mcineral, slavery is also accepted in the Bible, as well as a load of other barbaric, socially acceptable actions from antiquity. You can’t take one religious text literally, and cherry pick the other.
So an incident happens once in history and now every Muslim wants to crash airplanes into buildings? Nice try. Does that make every Catholic a pedophile?
Muslim terrorism is a single, isolated event?
One major reason they have thus far been unsuccessful in another catastrophic attack against the USA homeland similar to 9/11, has been our vigilance in securing our airlines and airports from would-be terrorists.
^ You mean securing us from bottled water, shaving cream, and old people forgetting to take change out of their pockets?
Lol. You literally make no sense. Carry on.
People are what they are and no enforced diversity is going to change them. Guys go to sports bars or gay bars, some attend black colleges or work with match makers to find them compatible Jewish partners and, yes, there’s the Bloods and the Creeps and the KKK.
After the ‘melting pot’ project was abandoned ‘we’ tried to enforce ‘diversity’ and make absurd claims such as ‘diversity is our strength’. It’s not. And, humans being what they are, there will always be bias and hostility vs. ‘strangers’ because there is fear and insecurity and this herd instinct or desire to ‘belong’.
So I am sorry for what nice Muslims have to go through but, unless they become the majority and turn themselves into the controlling team, they will be facing discrimination in the US and, believe it or not, non-Muslims are not going to be loved and embraced in places where the Muslims are the majority. It’s just the way it is.
Simply not true. I could cite numerous examples, but one area where we’ve made enormous progress is on gay rights, and that has everything to do with mindful educational programs designed to help people see that “difference” as non-threatening. Schools that have robust diversity programs (both of mine have, and I ran the one at my former school) have significantly fewer issues with bullying. In my sixteen years at my previous school and nine at my current, we’ve had no official cases of bullying or ganging up on others. zero.
I agree with you to some extent that we may be primed in a Darwinian sense to see “others” as a threat, but there is abundant evidence that addressing prejudice helps ameliorate it. Doing the opposite –throwing up our hands and saying prejudice can’t be changed –is the one sure thing that cultivates it. That’s exactly why this woman is doing the right thing by calling attention to the problem. Another poster has already noted that he/she, in turn, has lodged an official complaint with the airlines. This sense that we are passive victims of systems bigger than us is wrong. We are the system, and we can change it.
I know this might sound crazy, but I think kids pick up a lot of negative behavior such as bullying and pettiness from television. Disney and Nickelodeon seem to portray bullying in their shows more often than I think a lot of kids are exposed to it at an early age. They do portray it negatively, but showing it at all I think makes kids think it is more common and accepted than it really should be.
” I am sorry for what nice Muslims have to go through but…unless they become the majority and turn themselves into the controlling team It’s just the way it is.” – Roxette
Thankfully that theory, as Morning’s Minion rightly pointed out, is flawed from the get-go. Not only are more diverse groups (and more of them) being granted their own (actually the same) civil rights among many different societies civil liberties paradigms, and deservedly so, history, by the progress made thus far, shows us that it is, despite set-backs along the way, pretty much just the way it is.
In other words it’s another example of “it’s just the way it is” thinking – until it isn’t.
It’s all in the “thinning of the herd” plan of the super rich that is followed by all those in DC and elsewhere who have been bought and paid for by the rich. Get a billion Christian idiots hating a billion Muslim idiots and you have the possibility of great weapons sales and a meaningful thinning. Get the government to subsidize the weapons sales to both sides with funds borrowed from the richest bankers and it’s even better. Study the world from the fascist’s perspective and at least understand better what is happening.
“JFK to 9/11 Everything is a Rich Man’s Trick” Google it. View it. Understand.
Why is ‘war’ a constant in humans’ history? Seriously. You can be as simplistic as you want and blame it all on the super rich but, it turns out, humans killing, raping and plundering are what humans to best and they seem to love it for as long as they are with the winning team. Or am I wrong?
Causes? Fear, insecurity, unfulfilled needs…
Because the fantasy of pure capitalism requires an unlimited source of wealth. Since this obviously doesn’t exist, the only way to get ahead eventually is to take things from other people. Wealth and power are more relative measures than absolute, and they are in finite supply. Everyone can’t be a winner. Once one group starts climbing the socioeconomic ladder, another groups power diminishes relative to them. War happens to maintain the hierarchy. There are other things that could theoretically replace war (moral equivalent such as a second space race), or uniting against a common cause, such as an alien invasion or natural disaster affecting the entire planet.
A change of heart. Good work Leger! http://fb.me/7lDaIFTa2
Muslims are facing this sort of discrimination because of their own fault of not being united. The Sunnis and Shias are at war with each other. Look at us Christians. Our Catholics and Protestants also have differences, but we don’t get into throat-cutting halaal ceremonies. In fact, we even coexist peacefully with the treacherous Jews. As long as Shias and Sunnis keep fighting each other, it is futile to expect anyone else showing them any respect.
Same with Blacks, they also should stop killing each other if they want white policemen to stop killing them.
Could you point me to a book about the recorded treachery of the Jews? But you could pick up any history book to find out about Christian treachery towards Jews though. I’m sure Jesus would be proud.
Lets vote on who are the traitors and who are the patriots?The Zionists will come in dead last in a world of honesty,which of course,since the Zionists report on everything,is impossible.
Headscarves make Muslim women more feminine and attractive than theirs,maybe that’s why the Ziomonsters hate them.
First of all, what the hell do Jews have to do with “Zionists?” I don’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist, do I. There are Christian zionists everywhere. What’s the difference between you calling Jews zionists, and Hercules calling every Muslim a member of ISIS? (And I don’t mean to equate Zionists with ISIS, I’m just making a point)
Headscarves make Muslim women attractive to you. Obviously that’s not the case in most of the world, as most women across the world don’t wear headscarves. You like something. Somebody else likes something else. What you like is not better. It’s just what you like.
Atheist, I have a question for you.
Do you support Sharia Law? Would you accept it as the law of the land?
“Headscarves make Muslim women attractive to you.” Under Sharia headscarves are MANDATORY. So are gloves. Like this article points out!
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/saudi-religious-police-force-gloveless-indecent-woman-leave-shopping-mall-1502881
“What you like is not better. It’s just what you like.”
BS, I f-ing hate that cop out. I like Woman’s rights and treating them like humans is what I like, I think that is BETTER than treating them like PROPERTY.
You know when I called you a “genius” I was really joking. What I meant was that you are an idiot. That’s what I really meant
Why on earth would I support Sharia Law? What writing of mine drew you to ask me that question?
He said he thinks that women in head scarves are attractive. What does that sentiment have to do with women’s rights?
Do I think that women should wear head scarves? Of course I don’t think that. And it’s great that you think that it is nice to treat women as humans and not property. That’s very big of you. But women don’t give a shit about what YOU think. It’s just what YOU think. Women already have rights, whatever the fuck YOU think, or I think.
And women in the Middle East, and in many poor countries don’t have nearly any rights, or as much rights as they do in the West, but even in the West, women don’t have enough rights. They should definitely have more. But that’s just what I think. But if you asked a woman, I’m sure she doesn’t give a shit what I think as she probably thinks those rights are inalienable to her, and has nothing to do with what I think.
Please. Stop thinking of yourself as some super smart person. You’re half an idiot. Just like I am. Just like everybody else.
I deduced that you supported Sharia Law because of your comment, “What you like is not better. It’s just what you like.”
We both agree then that women of any race, religion, orientation, etc. are just as equal and have just as many inalienable rights as any man, but then you say. “What you like is not better. It’s just what you like.” How is what you and I like not better than the way Muslim men (who do actually support Sharia) like to treat their women? If everything is ok because everyone is different than I conclude you support that kind of behavior.
You’re working your brain overtime. He said he likes head scarves.Okay. so what? Somebody else likes bikinis. Somebody likes pink hair. So what? Had he said “I like head scarves. I’m going to force my significant other to wear one,” and then if I had replied with “you like what you like, I like what I like,” then maybe you would have a point. All he said was he likes head scarves. I can’t go deducing from that anything malicious. I only know that I don’t care for that.
If someone said, “I like short hair on a woman” and I said “what you like is what you like, and what you like is not better,” all it means is that some people like short hair, some people like long hair. It’s a matter of taste, not a matter of short hair is “better” or more morally acceptable or something, which is the way Muslims or conservative religious people like the Duggars like to portray their “style” as morally superior. I was telling him, that it’s not morally superior, or “better,” just what he likes.
That’s it. You’re going all Sherlock Holmes on it and letting your imagination run wild.
For the record, I was born a Muslim, but have only contempt for religion of all kinds. I can guarantee you that I think less about Sharia law, than you seem to. But I do find, that bigotry against Muslims exist, so I do defend Muslims when I get the chance (as my whole family is Muslim), as people like you seem to work your brains to no end to find fault with them.
“But I do find, that bigotry against Muslims exist, so I do defend Muslims when I get the chance (as my whole family is Muslim), as people like you seem to work your brains to no end to find fault with them.”
People like me huh? What are you implying? People as in Christians? Bigotry towards Christians does not exist? If I am not mistaken, you are the one talking about Christian treacheries towards Jews, I brought up Muslim treacheries (Sharia law) and you get sensitive. When people who you support get exposed you get angry and toss out curse words and insults but you are more than willing to persecute people who you don’t support. You are a bigot. Lesson concluded. That is the problem with Atheists, they cannot see the own fallacies in their arguments.
Yes, he called Jews treacherous, so I asked him to look himself in the fucking mirror.
Who the fuck is persecuting Christians. Who is telling you, you can’t do something? It’s you religious Christians and religious Muslims, and religious Jews who’re telling people that they can’t get married, and they can’t do this, and they can’t do that. Who’s telling you, that you can’t do something?
Get over yourself already. Watch some more Bill O’reilley. There is no fucking war on Christmas.
I don’t watch MSM. It is full of lies. Billy boy is about as far away from a true Christian as one can get. He does not represent real Christians just like ISIS does not represent real Muslims.
I see it now AthiestInChief!
You are a bigot! You just hate Christians.
Funny how just a few posts above you stand up for a Muslim, then here you attack Christians with the same bigotry espoused to the poor lady in this article by the airline employees.
Funny how Atheists think they cannot be bigoted just because they don’t believe in a higher power!
Reminds me of this man.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us/muslim-student-shootings-north-carolina.html
Yeah. You’re a fucking genius.
Nope, not a genius. Just honest. I enjoy exposing people that are closet bigots.
Let me repeat myself minus the sarcasm:
You’re a fucking idiot!
Christians have been persecuted since before there were different denominations–it’s not because of infighting.
Where is Il Duce when we need him?
I’m not in any way Muslim, but once I got into trouble over an inoffensive picture I drew of a woman with a headscarf (never mind that the setting which gave rise to the headscarf wasn’t even one that I’d picked out myself). If it’s to that point, it’s really not worth talking about how it’s their own fault anymore.
Thanks Murtaza. I’m glad this story is on the Intercept. Honestly, I had a hard time believing that some passenger shouted at her and nobody said anything. But I suppose nobody wants to risk speaking up for a Muslim and then being put on some travel ban list.
Exactly. Cowardice or fear.
Dear God, what an increasingly depraved society we live in! But this type of discriminatory attitude is INTENTIONALLY being inculcated in the masses, in both the U.S. and the entire West. To hate the “other”. And, “we’re superior”. “We’re better than every other country on the planet.” Our “apple pie” is better than other countries “apple pie”, if you catch my drift. In other words, every other people in every other country that have different ways of effectively dealing with things, where they do, is all supposedly inferior to the “almighty”, “great” U.S. and its people. Etc. Rather than going towards betterment in the right direction, the U.S. is getting worse and worse, and more and more racist; and it’s all by design of the powers-that-be. They want us at eachothers’, and every “others”, throats. Thus, increasing numbers of people are being demonized without any respect for law and order (while believing they’re believers in, and upholders of, “law and order”), without any respect for not discriminating (I know because I’m fully physically disabled and I’m being outrageously discriminated against by “authorities” right now—they’ve even had the gall to say they will not recognize my disabilities!), with refusing to believe people are the things that they have been officially determined to be, by the government no less, etc. They blindly trust the government and MSM on the one hand, and believe “everyone’s scamming” and gotten away with bamboozling the government to get what they “don’t deserve” on the other hand. It’s literally mass-madness taking over. The country, the West and the world are going mass-insane on an express train to hell on earth.
The Zionists never sleep in their divide and conquer campaign.
Author Deepa Kumar on the imperial roots of anti-Muslim sentiment
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/07/author-deepa-kumar-on-the-imperial-roots-of-anti-muslim-sentiment
and see this excerpt:
from wrmea.org/1991-july/benjamin-netanyahu-the-joe-isuzu-of-the-middle-east-media-wars.html
When I read about this on The Guardian, the first thing I did was to log on to my United Mileage Plus account and send a message to Customer Service, promising that United is no longer on my list of approved carriers. The airline’s quality of service has declined steadily since their merger with Houston-based Continental. It now appears that the Texanization of the United corporate culture is nearly complete. All that is lacking are rebel flag patches on their uniforms and cowboy boots.
If you are a United frequent flier, please give them a piece of your mind. The flight attendant who did this should have been fired on the spot.
Thanks for doing this; we need more people like you. I hope the airline is shamed into holding those responsible accountable.
So because one flight attendant made a mistake (who later apologized, as did the pilot) and one passenger on that flight was a jerk, you’re going to boycott the company?
Hello
My fiance is a United flight attendant and says that all her coworkers are outraged that Taher was treated in such a bad way. The flight was a contractor airline and not a proper United flight. United workers are very tolerant, respectful people usually.
but sweetened carbonated beverages areweapons of health destruction.
Make your own!
for example:
http://down—to—earth.blogspot.com/2014/10/ginger-cordial-recipe.html
I can not explain other people.. They make me wonder?.? I shop in stores that are Arabic – I say hello and other peasantries. I have never asked their religion….
I also shop in Indian shops – they have what I want at good prices…. never asked their religions.. The guy in the pizza place is a sheik ( spelled wrong – wears a turban…. but not in the heat of summer I learned) . hard workers – from what I know of them all good people. Go into a foreign store and they wonder what I’m doing… WHO is suspicious of who – mostly normal everyday people….. something to say?.? something to prove?.? O.K. the food is strange to me – I would need a translator to find out what it is….
Hopefully, this will go down in history as another Rosa Park moment. Unfortunately, between politicians who see appealing to the worst of human nature as a winning strategy (it is a winning strategy as a route to power, but a losing strategy for society) and those who learned from Tobacco and the Afrikaaner state that mere denial, no matter how well funded the lobby, doesn’t work when the facts are against you, you have to make it an automatic austracization to even mention the facts, odds are against that.
Funny how this happens to people in the public eye. Of course, she would never make any of this up to make her speeches easier to write. You lapdogs here love it though.
All the “f-youds” heard in flight aisles over this somewhat mundane instance are somewhat implausible.
“The first measure of a free society is that its government protects the just freedoms of its minorities. The majority is quite capable of protecting itself.” Jim Warren
“The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.” Ralph W. Sockman
Muslims are the most oppressed religious minority in the world. All across the world, if any politician wants to be elected, the best way to do it is to hate on Muslims. If under your leadership, Muslims are killed, then you have even a better chance of being elected! Muslims are repeatedly picked on and bullied by the media and fellow citizens and even killed in so many countries of the world: Central African Republic (436 mosques demolished in the last couple of years), Burma, China, Israel, Russia, France, Serbia, India, Armenia, Australia, New Zealand, England, USA, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Barbados, Greece, Cambodia, Bosnia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Angola, Spain, Macedonia, Niger, Nigeria…and the list goes on and on and on…
Worse than the above, Muslims are persecuted in their own countries by the tyrants and dictators forced upon them along with religious extremists.
This is the most challenging time to be a Muslim in majority of the countries of the world.
It was obviously her first flight. No cans are given unopened so that you dont make a mess on other passengers. The problem is in her head.
AGAIN THE BEER CAN WAS GIVEN UNOPENED TO HER FELLOW PASSENGER !! AGAIN ! AGAIN ! AGAIN GENE AGAIN !!1
“I think the overwhelming majority of Americans are good people.”
wow. believing in the quran or hadith i get…but that’s just crazy talk.
What despicable and disgusting treatment this obviously good person has had to endure. I am ashamed to call myself an American, lest I am associated with those ignorant AMERICAN assh0les doing this to her. Keep your chin up, and don’t let those bastards drag you down.
The voices of Muslims around the world critical of jihad, ISIS, subjugation and humiliation of women in Middle Eastern countries – these voices have been astoundingly quiet to non-existent. The lack of open opposition among Muslims to the terrorist activities can justifiably be construed by non-Muslims to be appromnes tell us Muslims living among us do in fact at least financially support terrorism and terrorist states. If Muslims want others to see them as peace-loving they need to stand up and differentiate themselves NOW. After all, there are plenty of those in the Middle East who view any westerner there – including aid workers – as the enemy… just ask the families of Alan Henning, David Haines and Kayla Mueller.
Every terrorist org in the region is backed by The US and Zionists.If only you wanted the truth,instead of your fear based BS that keeps you warm.
We have met the enemy,and he is US.
You Muppet – The Imam of the Haram in Mecca ( That’s the main mosque) has spoken against the likes of ISIS etc. Just how ignorant are you people?
I only have a couple more years until I have enough money to emigrate away from this Gangster State.
In all of your flying experience, have you ever seen a flight attendant give any passenger an unopened can of anything? Neither have it. I don’t believe this woman.
I remember flying as a child when smoking was allowed – the aeroplanes used to stink. And yes I have recieved closed cans.
The article is very factual but couldnt help notice refereing to a women in a mens name Ahmed, believe is a genuine mistake
I have to say, the draconian crackdown on PrankNet is truly a national tragedy. There are always going to be prank callers, but to think of them simply being vulgar and unfunny as in this case until the target hangs up … it’s inexcusable. Some of the stories are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pranknet – follow the links and you should find the original audio recordings. To this day the mere *thought* of “apple juice” is enough to start the giggles. The world has a use for “troubleshooters” like that, to make it useful for people to think about what they are doing.
It needs to be pointed out that the opposition, prejudices and demonization are toward Islam and Muslims, and not Radical Islam/Radical Muslims, or Islamism/Islamists.
The person, an Iraq war veteran, who organized that protest in front of that Arizona mosque wore a t-shirt that said “F&#@ Islam” and not “F&#@ Islamism”.
The passenger who allegedly told this woman off said: “You Muslim, you need to shut the f*** up…”, not “You Islamist, …”, or “You Radical Muslim, …”
The person who called her pretending to be an airline employee also used the word ‘Muslims’, not “Islamists” or “Radical Muslims”.
So, clearly, these people do not make a distinction between a Muslim and a Radical Muslim/Islamist, and are quite honest about it.
So, in the hearts and minds of many people, there’s no distinction. To them, it’s one big monolithic religion that they are against.
The more relevant distinction would seem to be (to perhaps abuse a Christian precept) to “hate Islam, but love the Muslim.” The anti-Islamic activist should see himself not as the enemy of the Muslim, but as a friend – one who hopes to persuade them to abandon flawed beliefs, and to take up better ideas in their place. In this regard, he indeed should not distinguish between Islam and Radical Islam; indeed some Christians will say that salvation itself depends on abandoning both, making the distinction immaterial. However, to him the thought of accusing a woman of being a terrorist because she wears a headdress should be alien. His war is not with a headdress, nor a woman, but with a false prophet and a badly flawed ideology, and it is worse than useless to suppose that anything but her voluntary conversion would be desirable or productive, or indeed, be anything other than a replay of the birth of Islam itself.
Critics of Islam rarely address the issue in a way that is rational and respectful. What they do instead is basically throw insults around, telling Muslims how culturally inferior they are, and how westerners always mean well, by definition. They go as far as trying to provoke Muslims, hoping that this might further their holier-than-thou stance.
This, of course, is very divisive, and in a way, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Things are clearly getting worse, and it’s not because Muslims are becoming more religious.
“Telling Muslims how culturally inferior they are, and how westerners always mean well…”
The stock in trade of the so-called New Atheists.
And yours is the stock in trade of the narrow-minded Christian bigot.
Who seem to be all Zionists who use God as their deed writer.F*cking hypocrites.
Yes, I think there’s sort of an arrogance about it, even among those who claim only to be critiquing a belief system, at times. I think there’s a certain paternalism that creeps in, so much a part of our culture’s landscape.
As if the Muslim community isn’t equipped to deal with its own issues… As if Muslim feminists (for example) didn’t exist.
What the world does not need is more Christian prejudice. One does NOT have to be a Christian to be a good person and your desire to stamp out a religion in which you do not believe is nothing more than another form of attack on people who believe in that religion. They have just as much right to their beliefs as you do whether you consider their beliefs flawed or not. Your hateful comments would certainly not make you a friend of the Muslim whom you would attempt to deny a right to his own faith.
@ Wnt
Who exactly should be, or who are you referring to as–“an anti-Islamic activist”? More importantly, unless it is part of one’s religion to attempt to proselytize in the direction of conversion, who is anybody to be attempting to “persuade” any Muslim that their “beliefs are flawed”? As an atheist should I be attempting to convince those of the Christian faith that, in my humble opinion, their “beliefs are flawed” and to “take up better ideas” like atheism?
Hey how about let’s not make distinctions about anything, and since the majority of Christians (at least American ones) once felt slavery of other human beings was tolerable and not in conflict with Christian faith, belief or purported morality.
I have no idea what you mean by that last part. The thought of accusing anyone of being a terrorist based on outward appearance or general affiliation with any particular religion is not only stupid, but statistically without merit. In fact, while we all are biologically wired to perceive and classify based on common characteristics of any group of objects, those who are relatively more enlightened recognize this innate propensity in human beings and make a concerted effort to “never judge a book by its cover”. Nevertheless, “otherizing” anybody outside one’s one “faith” or “tribe” is a quite human characteristic particularly among some of those claiming to be Christians.
I have no idea what point you were trying to make in relation to this article or any other commenter’s comment, but you should try and write with a little more clarity, because I for one can’t make heads or tails of what point you were trying to make and your comment came off borderline as bigoted as the jerk on the plane. Unless of course I’m missing the tomato in your word salad.
I think WNT has done a good job of describing his beliefs. That is, in having risen above the urge to kill the messenger, he feels so good about himself that he thinks anything else he says must be true.
I don’t regard myself as an anti-Islamic activist, but I am thoroughly sick of seeing people on the news spout off their respect toward a religion they don’t believe in, simply because it’s supposed to be nice not to disagree with people about that. There are many wrong beliefs in the world and Islam is only one of them. Nor do I actually subscribe to the Christian hard line that salvation is denied all those who don’t follow the right magic formula. Nonetheless — we have to look at the world as it is and see that Western civilization arose where it did for a reason. Because when people follow the lead of a dissident who spoke of love, who commended the poorest and challenged authority and wealth, that’s not just words; it has consequences. And when we sand everything down to pure inoffensiveness, we forget the meaning of the things that were said.
By the last part I mean only that I see Islam as a religion of forced conversion, and I see forced conversion as no better than Islam. Christianity obviously has been reduced to that low many a time in history, and each time it has been no better than Islam. But we see a handful of heroic people who have found better things in the religion than that, and those are the example to follow. A government functionary like Constantine or a PRC functionary can take any religion, print his own version of its holy books interpreted by his own hand-picked representatives with his own penalties for the heretics who disagree, and thereby turn what should have been a beautiful thing into something empty of meaning; but to me it seems the Koran was empty of meaning to start with.