CHICAGO: In yet another case of Islamophobia, a Pakistani-American couple claims to have been removed from a US-bound flight after an onboard crew member felt "uncomfortable" after noticing that they were "sweating" and saying "Allah" and texting.
Nazia and Faisal Ali have accused Delta Air Lines of throwing them off their flight from Paris to Cincinnati, Ohio. Nazia, 34, was settling into her seat for the nine-hour flight when a Delta Air Lines crew member approached them. A flight member had expressed her discomfort with the Muslim couple, to the pilot. She allegedly told the pilot that the woman was wearing a head scarf and using a phone, and the man was sweating. The flight attendant also claimed that Faisal tried to hide his cell phone and she heard them use the word "Allah".
The pilot contacted the ground crew and would not take off until the two stepped out. Nazia said, "We had been in our seats for 45 minutes. The ground agent said, Can you step out with me? We'd like to ask you a few questions. So I said, Do you want us to get our things? And he said, Please grab all of your belongings, you're not going to be on this flight." The couple were interrogated by a French police officer about their stay in Paris, and later said he had no problem with them.
Following the incident, the Muslim advocacy group filed a religious profiling complaint against Delta Air Lines to the US Department of Transportation. The Airlines said, "Delta condemns discrimination toward our customers in regard to age, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender." They said they will investigate the matter and issue a full refund of these customers' airfare.
2 Muslim women working for US govt deplaned
Two American Muslim women were asked to leave an American Airlines plane after one of them talked to another passenger about the lack of water and food and a flight attendant said they had made him feel “unsafe.” Niala Mohammad, a journalist for the government-funded news outlet Voice of America, and her friend, who works for the federal government, were travelling from Miami to Washington when they were asked to disembark the plane. Mohammad wrote on Facebook that their plane had been grounded for about five hours in Miami and they were not allowed to buy food or drink. Her friend and a white male passenger seated behind her started talking about the delay. A male flight attendant allegedly approached her friend and said: “If you have a problem, you can get off the plane.” He also accused her of “instigating” objections from other passengers and allegedly threatened to remove her from the plane. The friends took a picture of the flight attendant to try and identify him as he was not wearing a badge. An American Airlines representative came on board and asked the two women to follow her off the plane, where they were greeted by armed air marshals and police officers.
