DeborahElaineDeWitt · @prplmoon
31st May 2015 from TwitLonger
WHY I REFUSE TO BE UNITED FOR TAHERA UNTIL I HEAR UNITED'S RESPONSE
WHY I REFUSE TO BE UNITED FOR TAHERA UNTIL I HEAR UNITED'S RESPONSE
Tahera Ahmad’s late night Facebook post began “I am sitting on a United airlines flight in the air 30,000ft above and i am in tears of humiliation from discrimination.” Her 20 line description of what had happened to her concludes with “#IslamophobiaISREAL” But how real is Tahera Ahmad's interpretation of what happened?
TAHERA AHMAD’S FACEBOOK POST
I first saw Ms. Ahmad's post on the morning on May 30th, when it was re-posted by the well-known Oxford Professor and Muslim political activist Tariq Ramadan, who added his encouragement “Boycott United Airlines until they apologize.” Boycotting seemed like an extreme reaction. Scanning Ms. Ahmad's account, it appeared to be a problem with misconduct by a single flight attendant, and some bigoted remarks by another passenger.
I was surprised by the vehement response to Ramadan's post. More than 8,000 readers approved his call for a boycott and more than 400 readers had left comments such as these:
“The more they persecute us, the more we will be strong!" "Boycott UNITED AIRLINES ...” “All Muslims must boycott United.” "Complete injustice... United Airlines needs to be sued.”
“Shame on United Airlines.” “I think you should sue the airline.”
I was truly shocked by the reaction. To hold an entire airline responsible for the actions of a single employee is as unjust as holding all Muslims responsible for the actions of a small minority of terrorists.
The incident had happened only ten hours earlier. To call for a boycott of the airline without verifying what had happened, and without giving the airline an opportunity to respond seemed extremely irresponsible. Ms. Ahmad was offended and upset. She was well within her rights to publish her account of the incident. But shouldn't Muslim community leaders enourage a calm, patient, methodical response?
I found Ms. Ahmad’s facebook page and verified that the post indeed existed. I copied the text of her comment, posted on 29 May 2015 at 10:22 pm EST. It read as follows:
“I am sitting on a United airlines flight in the air 30,000ft above and I am in tears of humiliation from discrimination. The flight attendant asked me what I would like to drink and I requested a can of diet coke. She brought me a can that was open so I requested an unopened can due to hygienic reasons. She said no one has consumed from the drink, but I requested an unopened can. She responded, "Well I'm sorry I just can't give you an unopened can so no diet coke for you." She then brought the man sitting next to me a can of UNOPENED beer. So I asked her again why she refused to give me an UNOPENED can of diet coke. She said, "We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a WEAPON on the plane." So I told her that she was clearly discriminating against me because she gave the man next to me an unopened can of beer. She looked at his can, quickly grabbed it and opened it and said, "it's so you don't use it as a weapon." Apphauled at her behavior I asked people around me if they witnessed this discriminatory and disgusting behavior and the man sitting in an aisle across from me yelled out to me, "you Moslem, you need to shut the F** up." I said, "what?!" He then leaned over from his seat, looked me straight in the eyes and said, "yes you know you would use it as a WEAPON so shut the f**k up." I felt the hate in his voice and his raging eyes. I can't help but cry on this plane because I thought people would defend me and say something. Some people just shook their heads in dismay. #IslamophobiaISREAL”
[A photograph of Tahera Ahmad's original post can viewed here:
https://www.facebook.com/imamomarsuleiman/photos/a.261700930516622.63795.219543788065670/975437905809584 ]
THE MUSLIM PROPAGANDA MACHINE’S SWIFT RESPONSE
I checked the Twitter accounts of several other well-known American Muslim political activists.
As expected, all were busily retweeting copies of Ms. Ahmad’s tale, proclaiming the incident to be evidence of widespread Islamophobia, demanding a formal apology, calling for a boycott ... Obviously, Professor Ramadan’s reaction was not an isolated over-reaction. It appeared that the entire American Muslim propaganda network had been systematically notified and called to action.
A clever hashtag, #UnitedForTahera, had been devised. Paging through Tweets, I discovered that the hashtag had been introduced within two and a half hours after Ms. Ahmad posted her tale.
At 12:58 am EST on 30 May 2015, well-known Muslim teacher and activist,
Abel Rahman Murphy (@AbdelRahmanM) tweeted: “Skipping my @united flight tomorrow and purchasing a new flight from @Delta right now. Inexcusable. #unitedfortahera”
A few minutes later, at 1:18 am EST, the well-known Imam, Omar Suleiman (@omarsuleiman504) tweeted: “I refuse to fly @united until they learn how to not discriminate. Pathetic behavior. #unitedfortahera”
As the morning progressed, more and more Muslim leaders chimed in:
At 9:28 am EST, Imam Suhaib Webb (@ImamSuhaibWebb) of Boston wrote
“I'm asking all of you to let @united know that you are disgusted with this bigotry, that the must act!”
At 10:41 am, MPAC, the national Muslim Political Action Committee
(@mpac_national) added their official judgment: “.@united Bigotry is inexcusable #unitedfortahera”
As expected, the online furor was picked up by major newspapers.
At 11:36 am, The Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) reported : “Northwestern Muslim chaplain @TaheraHAhmad claims racist remarks on United flight http://bit.ly/1Fln6mO “
By midday on the 30th, a mere twelve hours after the incident occurred, hundreds of thousands of Muslims around the globe were retweeting Tahera’s facebook post and calling for a boycott of United Airlines.
UNITED AIRLINE’S INITIAL RESPONSE
According to the interview with Ms. Ahmad published by the Chicago Sun Times, the flight attendant later apologized to the tearful Ms. Ahmad:
“The flight attendant also acknowledged that the man who yelled at me was wrong for doing so and apologized that her behavior led to that. She acknowledged it was unethical and said he never should have said anything.”
Ms. Ahmad said the pilot also apologized and walked her to the service desk once the flight landed at Reagan National Airport, so she could file a formal complaint. But Ms. Ahmad failed to mention whether or not the apologetic flight attendant rectified matters by providing her with a previously unopened can of coke.
By mid-morning, United Airlines spokesman Charles Hobart announced to social media that the company is reaching out to Ms. Ahmad to “get a better understanding of what occurred during the flight.” He affirmed that “United is a company that strongly supports diversity and inclusion, and we and our partners do not discriminate against our employees or customers.”
[http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/648601/muslim-chaplain-northwestern-university-said-discriminated-united-airlines]
NOTHING BUT THE FACTS
As I read and re-read Ms. Ahmad’s account, I began to realize that it is far from clear that the flight attendant ever intended to be rude or insulting toward Ms. Ahmad. Was she just doing her job, following TSA policy as politely as possible?
Whenever I fly, I always request cans of plain side water. I vaguely recall that the flight attendant always opens the cans before giving them to me. Is it possible that, indeed, there is a way to use an unopened soda can as a weapon? Is it possible that TSA policy does prohibit giving unopened soda cans to passengers?
I re-read Ms. Ahmad’s post again, several times, seeking the plain fact beneath the emotional embroidery and interpretations. In doing so, I became increasingly convinced the incident was marred by poor communication and that Ms. Ahmad had over-reacted.
ANOTHER INTERPRETATION
Ms. Ahmad’s request for an unused, unopened can of pop should have been honored. However, demanding an unopened can "for hygienic reasons” is a tad insulting. If someone requested an unopened can of pop "for hygienic reasons" at my home, I would be very offended. Perhaps the flight attendant was rattled by the initial, difficult exchange with
Ms. Ahmad, and inadvertently gave the man sitting next to her an unopened can of beer.
Ms. Ahmad reports that the flight attendant "looked at his can, quickly grabbed it
and opened it." To me, this suggest that the flight attendant may have been seeking
to correct a mistake of failing to open the beer can per airline policy.
Accusing the flight attendant of "discrimination" over something as trivial as an unopened beer can was an extremely aggressive, confrontational response. I would simply have asked the flight attendant "Why is it ok for this man to have an unopened can of beer?" When the flight attendant explained again that airline policy forbids giving unopened cans to passengers,
I would have continued by saying "Oh, now I understand. Can you give me a full can of coke
if you open it in front of me?" Perhaps such a response would have led to a peaceful resolution, if a peaceful resolution is what Ms. Ahmad was seeking.
Ms. Ahmad reports that when the flight attendant explained the airline policy, for the third time, she said bluntly "It's so you don't use it as a weapon." Ms. Ahmad states that she was "appalled". I would not have been appalled. I would have assumed that the flight attendant meant "you" in the colloquial plural sense, meaning "It's so you [passengers] don't use it as a weapon." I would not have inferred immediately that “you” referred to myself in particular, or to Muslims in particular.
Ms. Ahmad reported to the Chicago Sun Times that she had been a victim of anti-Muslim bigotry in the past. Were Ms. Ahmad’s perceptions colored by fear of potential discrimination?
Was her interpretation of the flight attendant’s behavior as being insulting and discriminatory magnified, after the fact, by the extremely rude and bigoted behavior of the passenger across the aisle?
Is it possible that other passengers on the flight thought that Ms. Ahmad was being unnecessarily peevish and demanding? That accusing the flight attendant of “discrimination”
was reckless, hot-headed and undeserved?
After re-reading Ms. Ahmad's post several times, I suspect she may have over-reacted and that, perhaps, the flight attendant meant no offense. Until we hear United Airlines' response, there really isn't any hard evidence that the flight attendant’s conduct was improper. Clearly, it would be wrong to boycott United Airlines because of the unpredictable, vile conduct of one of their passengers.
ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY IS AN UNFORTUNATE REALITY
Certainly, there can be no excuse any passenger to intervene with blantantly bigoted remarks such as “You Moslem, you need to shut the F** up.” Given the existing political climate, with daily headlines about atrocities committed by ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Hamas, and other Islamist organizations, anti-Muslim bigotry is an unfortunate fact of life. Airline passengers who openly provoke anger with flagrantly bigoted remarks are dangerous and should be put on non-fly lists. But how should Muslims respond?
Surprisingly, it often appears that, rather than responding to the existence of anti-Muslim bigotry by striving to quell anxiety, ignoring minor insults and settling conflicts as calmly and peacefully as possible, Muslim activists --- sometimes even those who serve as imams and religious scholars --- do the opposite, stirring up conflict and eagerly promoting examples of so-called “islamophobia."
In her capacity as an Islamic scholar and chaplin at Northwestern University, Ms. Ahmad is certain to be well-versed in the Muslim Student Assocation’s campaign to promote recognition of “Islamophobia.” Ms. Ahmad concluded her allegations by writing: #IslamophobiaISREAL”
FANNING THE FLAMES
I am deeply ashamed of the American Muslim community for doing what it always seems to do: For fanning the flames, for publicizing this incident and calling for immediate poltical action, instead of waiting for all of the relevant facts to emerge, for leaping at every possible opportunity to cry “Islamophobia!”
We witnessed the same type of impatient, accusatory fear mongering by the American Muslim propaganda machine in the wake of the North Carolina shootings last January. Is it a conscious policy?
These flaming propaganda actions are always led by well-known political activists and supported by major American Muslim political organizations. They serve only to inflame anti-Muslim sentiment, bolster the sense that Muslims are hot headed, irrational and easily offended.
Increasingly, these social media compaigns are convincing the populace that Muslims are governed almost entirely by tribalistic loyalty, and will always seek some form of public lynching instead of patiently pursuing justice through established channels.
We should encourage Muslims everywhere to recognize that punishing an entire corporation because of the misconduct of a single individual is unjust. It is comparable to punishing all Muslims because of the crimes of a small number of violent jihadists.
POSTSCRIPT
United Airlines has not yet published a reponse to Ms. Ahmad’s accusations.
I shall withhold judgment about whether or not "discrimination" has occurred until I hear what United has to say about policy related to opening soda cans.
Apparently, to her credit, Ms. Ahmad has reconsidered the wisdom of her actions.
When I checked her facebook page again, just before midnight on May 30th,
I discovered that she had deleted, not only the original post, but her entire Facebook account.
Asalaamalaikum wa ramatullahi wa barakatuh
________________________________________________________________________________
Deborah Elaine DeWitt, Ann Arbor, Michigan
31 May 2015