Calls For United Airlines Boycott After Refusing Muslim a Diet Coke

Islamophobia continues to humiliate Muslims globally on land and in the air as a Muslim woman has became the latest victim on a United Airlines flight where she was refused her request of an unopened can of Diet Coke in fear she would use it as a weapon.

Tahera Ahmad is a reputable director of interfaith engagement at the Northwestern University, and was on her way DC to speak at a Kids For Peace conference when she was reduced to tears by discrimination. Looking to her quench her thirst, the victim was refused an unopened can on a United Airlines flight, the excuse that she wasn’t allowed one because she would use it as a weapon, even though the passenger next to her was given an unopened can of beer. Shocked by the response to her request, she looked for support from fellow passengers, who instead of defending her rights chose to side with the ignorant stewardess, alleging that one passenger told her “You Moslem, you need to shut the fuck up.” Pleading with the world, Ahmad took to Facebook on Friday to post this emotionally driven message detailing the incident.

Her post quickly went viral with many expressing their support and going so far to call for a boycott of United Airlines using #UnitedforTahera. Acknowledging the situation, United Airlines released a statement on Sunday that failed to deliver an apology to put the matter to rest.

Responding to their statement on Facebook Tahera posts "I am truly dissapointed at the latest statement by United Airlines. ... I simply did not expect United Airlines to dismiss the unwarranted and unfortunate rude behaviour, discrimination and hateful words but rather acknowledge their accountability and role in the painful experience and share corrective measures within their training to prevent this from happening again regardless of their race, religion, gender, sex, or socio-economic background." Taking to Twitter to further clarify the sequence of events Tahera tweets:

@united as of now, United has not officially reached out to me @omarsuleiman504 @ImamSuhaibWebb @hsmoghul pic.twitter.com/LmbEg8T3C7

— Tahera Ahmad (@TaheraHAhmad) May 30, 2015

Islamophobia is not a new phenomenon, but rather an issue that continues to get worse. Hopefully this matter will find a satisfactory conclusion, but is merely one incident in a larger problem that the world is yet to effectively address.

Here is some of our favourite tweets and a few that show how widespread Islamophobia has become:

Photo via Northwestern University