Muslim chaplain claims discrimination on United flight

(CNN)A simple request for an unopened can of Diet Coke on a United Airlines flight left Tahera Ahmad in tears.

A Muslim chaplain and director of interfaith engagement at Northwestern University, Ahmad, 31, was traveling Friday from Chicago to Washington for a conference promoting dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youths. She was wearing a headscarf, or hijab.

For hygienic reasons, she asked for an unopened can of soda, she said. The flight attendant told her that she could not give her one but then handed an unopened can of beer to a man seated nearby. Ahmad questioned the flight attendant.

"We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane," she recalled the flight attendant telling her.

United spokesman Charles Hobart said a flight attendant had tried several times to accommodate Ahmad's beverage request but that there was a "misunderstanding."

Hobart did not elaborate on the so-called misunderstanding but said United officials spoke to the chaplain Saturday afternoon to "get a better understanding" of what happened and to apologize for "for not delivering the service our customers expect when traveling with us."

On Facebook, Ahmad wrote that she was "truly disappointed" with the airline's response, which she said "disregarded and trivialized" the discrimination she experienced.

"I have not received a written sincere apology for the pain and hurt I experienced as a result of the discrimination and hateful words towards me," she wrote. "This is not about a can of soda."

Ahmad, who has Premier frequent-flier status with the airline, wrote that she been served unopened beverages on previous United flights and that she did not want the flight attendant fired.

"I simply did not expect United Airlines to dismiss the unwarranted and unfortunate rude behavior, discrimination and hateful words but rather acknowledge their accountability and role in the painful experience," she wrote.

Ahmad said that when she told the flight attendant she felt she was being discriminated against, the attendant abruptly opened the beer can of the man seated near her.

"It's so you don't use it as a weapon," Ahmad said she was told.

Shocked, Ahmad asked other passengers if they had seen what happened.

A man sitting across the aisle turned to her and yelled, "You Muslim, you need to shut the f--- up," she said.

"What?"

The man leaned over, according to Ahmad, and looked her in the eyes.

She said that the man told her: "Yes, you know you would use it as a weapon. So shut the f--- up."

"I felt the hate in his voice and his raging eyes," Ahmad wrote in an earlier Facebook while the plane was still in flight. "I can't help but cry ... because I thought people would defend me and say something. Some people just shook their heads in dismay."

After her initial post, people took to social media in to support, using the #unitedfortahera hashtag. Some pledged to boycott United.

Suhaib Webb, a prominent Muslim American imam, tweeted, "I'm asking all of you to let @united know that you are disgusted with this bigotry." He also tweeted a photo of a can of Diet Coke over #unitedfortahera.