United Airlines Boycott Possible After Alleged Discrimination Against Muslim Woman [Video]


United Airlines is facing major backlash following alleged discrimination against a Muslim woman. The Inquisitr previously reported that a chaplain named Tahera Ahmad claimed she was horribly treated on Shuttle America Flight 3504 after asking for an unopened can of Diet Coke.

Ahmad said a United Airlines flight attendant brought her an opened can with the explanation that she might commit an act of terrorism with an unopened can. To add insult to injury, the non-Muslim man next to her was served an unopened can of beer. The disappointed woman ended her Facebook account of the incident with the hashtag “#IslamaphobiaisREAL”.

United Airlines responded to the chaplain’s complaints with a statement.

“The flight attendant onboard Shuttle America flight 3504 attempted several times to accommodate Ms. Ahmad’s beverage request after a misunderstanding regarding a can of diet soda.

The inflight crew met with Ms. Ahmad after the flight arrived in Washington to provide assistance and further discuss the matter.”

Tahera Ahmad accused United Airlines of trivializing her experience as she shared her disappointment with Facebook followers. The situation outraged members of the public as the story went viral over the weekend. A growing number of people are calling for an outright boycott of the airline. Also the Twitter trend #UnitedForTahera took off, with many Muslims declaring outright their intention to never fly with United Airlines again following the alleged incident.

A Twitter user named @RaefMusic said that he’d logged over 130,000 miles through United Airlines. However, the man said that he would take his business elsewhere if the airline did not make things right by the chaplain. This sentiment has been echoed across the Internet; United Airlines may have granted their competition quite a few extra customers thanks to their handling of the alleged incident.

When searching for a reason or apparent justification as to why Muslims might be treated badly on a United Airlines flight, one might cite United Airlines Flights 93 and 175. These two planes crashed on September 11, 2001 due to terrorist hijackings. However, it’s bad business to associate every Muslim in the world with radical terrorism in the wake of the event. Studies have also showed that racial discrimination is bad for business.

According to Tahera Ahmad, she wasn’t trying to get the United Airlines worker fired. She didn’t even call for a boycott. All the woman wanted was an acknowledgement by the Airlines of its role in the bigoted incident and the promise of better training for flight personnel.

United Airlines will likely be motivated to do just that as a growing number of fliers promise to take their money to rival businesses.

[Image Credit: David McNew/Getty Images]

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