Tahera Ahmad, who was on the United Airlines flight (pic: Facebook)

A woman called United Airlines ‘Islamophobic’ after she was allegedly discriminated against by a flight attendant.

Tahera Ahmad, who works at Northwestern University as director of interfaith engagement, spoke last night of the ‘disgusting behaviour’ of the airplane staff.

She was on a flight last night and asked for an unopened can of Diet Coke, which the attendant refused to give her due to the airline’s apparent policy.

Ahmad then noticed the same attendant giving an unopened can of beer to someone else, and confronted her.


According to Ahmad, the attendant said: ‘We are unauthorised to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane.’



She then allegedly gave the Muslim woman a can of Diet Coke, which she immediately opened so Ahmad didn’t ‘use it as a weapon’.

Shocked, Ahmad turned to her fellow passengers to ask if they had witnessed the ‘discriminatory and disgusting’ incident.

One of them told told her ‘you Muslim, you need to shut the f**k up’, as he also believed that she could use the can as a weapon.

Ahmad then burst into tears, explaining that she’d been expecting people to defend her, but no-one had stepped up during the Islamophobic attack.

She posted about her ordeal on Facebook, and her post soon went viral.

A hashtag supporting her soon started on Twitter, with people saying that they will boycott United Airlines until it apologises:

Disgusting discrimination and profiling. Not flying @united until they apologize to her. #unitedfortahera pic.twitter.com/KPTemjp6vc — Quran Weekly (@QuranWeekly) May 30, 2015

I will not be flying #UnitedAirlines ever again until they learn how to not discriminate. #unitedfortahera — ariba (@beebee313) May 30, 2015

Very disappointed to hear about @united Airlines Islamophobic behavior. I'll think twice before using your airline. #unitedfortahera — Ayfa A. (@Ayfapieper) May 30, 2015

@united All my employees travel using ur airline. But I wil now no longer allow them too. U have lost 18 customers today #unitedfortahera — transcendence (@climbingover) May 30, 2015

Definitely won't be flying United on my looming trip to the States. #unitedfortahera — Scarlett Hawkins (@Scarlett_Hawk) May 30, 2015

We reached out to United Airlines for comment, and they said:

‘United is a company that strongly supports diversity and inclusion, and we and our partners do not discriminate against our employees or customers. We are reaching out directly to Ms. Ahmad to get a better understanding of what occurred during the flight. We are also discussing the matter that Ms. Ahmad describes with Shuttle America, our regional partner that operated the flight. We look forward to speaking with Ms. Ahmad and hope to have the opportunity to welcome her back.’