By Sarah Harvard, Mic From Business Insider

Don’t ask for a glass of water if you’re a Muslim on an American Airlines flight. You might get kicked out.

Two Muslim women were ejected from a Wednesday-morning American Airlines flight from Miami to Washington, D.C., after asking for a glass of water, because a flight attendant reported feeling “unsafe” with them on the plane, BuzzFeed reported.

Niala Mohammad, a senior broadcast journalist and producer for Voice of America, and her unidentified friend, who declined to be named to BuzzFeed because she works for the federal government, were on the delayed American Airlines Flight 2239 that was sitting on the tarmac for more than three hours, according to BuzzFeed.

To help the time go by, Mohammad was watching Pakistani dramas on her iPhone. Her friend started conversing with a nearby male passenger about the delay, mentioning that no food or water was given to passengers. It was during this time a male flight attendant approached Mohammad’s friend and told her that she could get off the plane if she wasn’t pleased with the service.

“If you have a problem, you can get off the plane,” the male flight attendant said, according to Mohammad.

When Mohammad’s friend replied that she was simply “stating facts” and that they were given one glass of water within several hours, according to Mohammad’s Facebook post, the male flight attendant allegedly threatened her.

“Well, I can have you removed for instigating other passengers,” he said, according to Mohammad.

After experiencing poor customer service, Mohammad took a photo of the flight attendant and asked for his name. A female flight attendant told Mohammad and her friend that the attendant’s name is “Rog for Roger” and asked them to delete the photo. Mohammad complied.

Soon after, an American Airlines customer-relations representative asked them to come to the front with their belongings. Once they reached the ramp, several air marshals and Miami-Dade police officers were waiting to escort the two.

Mohammad said the two were kicked off the plane because the male flight attendant felt threatened by them. She also believed their ejection from the plane could have been racially motivated.

“When asked why we were being removed, we were informed that it was because ‘Rog’ felt threatened by us,” Mohammad wrote on Facebook. “However, the white male passenger my friend was speaking to was ironically not removed from the plane with us.”

This isn’t the first time American Airlines has been accused of removing individuals from its flights because of race, religion, or language spoken.

In April, Cenk Uygur, a host of the web show “The Young Turks,” live-streamed being booted off an American Airlines flight on Facebook. Uygur was complaining about the four-hour delay to gate agents and then was told that the captain on the flight didn’t feel comfortable with him on the plane.

In December, four men — three of them Muslim, one of them Sikh — were kicked off of a plane simply because the captain of the American Airlines flight allegedly “felt uneasy” with their presence.

And in December 2015, Mohamed Ahmed Radwan was flying from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Detroit when, according to Radwan’s filed complaint, a female flight attendant began taunting him over the public announcing system by saying that she would be “watching” him. Radwan was later kicked off the flight because she felt “uncomfortable” with him on the plane.

These incidents are not exclusive to American Airlines or its employees. Mohammad and her friend’s story are indicative of the overall discrimination individuals face just for flying while Muslim.

Moreover, their experiences tell us something more about the scope of anti-Muslim hysteria: that Islamophobia has become racialized. Islamophobia is about not just the fear or hatred of Islam as a religion but also of anyone who looks like the “stereotypical Muslim.” This could range from Sikhs wearing turbans, a man speaking Arabic, or two South Asian woman asking for a glass of water.

Read the original article on Mic. Copyright 2016. Follow Mic on Twitter.

IMAGE: We were removed from #AmericanAir flight 2239 traveling from MIA-DCA bcuz the airline attendant felt “unsafe” us!

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Related story:

We were removed from #AmericanAir flight 2239 traveling from MIA-DCA bcuz the airline attendant felt “unsafe” us!

By Niala Khalil From Facebook Aug 3 2016

Last night my friend and I were removed from American Airlines (AA) flight 2239 traveling from Miami International Airport (MIA) to Washington-Reagan National Airport (DCA) because the main crew airline attendant felt “unsafe” by our presence. Yup, the only two apparent Muslim girls on the plane got kicked off. Not sure if it was my friend’s statement “evil-eye” bracelet, the fact that I was watching a Pakistani drama on my iPhone, or our obvious Muslim last names that made him uncomfortable, but here’s the kicker, we both work for the United States Federal government.

This is the story.

According to the flight attendants, our initial flight delays were due to two changes with the flight crew and then the ground crew forgot to fuel the plane. After those delays, we began experiencing heavy rains and were delayed indefinitely. After exceeding the 3 hour federal regulation, the only people allowed to deplane were those who wanted to cancel their flight or make other travel arrangements at their own expense. After over 5 hours aboard the grounded plane, we were only offered one glass of water, a bag of pretzels, and told there would be no more food or beverage. A flight attendant informed us we were not allowed to purchase in-flight food unless we were in the air and we were denied the right to deplane to get food or use the airport restrooms. Air fuel fumes also began to permeate the cabin space. At one point, a white male passenger sitting directly behind us initiated a private conversation with my friend about the lack of customer care. Suddenly, a male flight attendant walking by singled out my friend and stated, “If you have a problem, you can get off the plane.” My friend replied, “I have no problem–I am simply stating facts. We were given one glass of water in 5 hours.” The attendant responded by once again threatening my friend, “Well, I can have you removed for instigating other passengers.” The flight attendant was not wearing his name badge and did not identify himself.

Since I was wearing headphones (watching my Pakistani drama), I only realized something happened when my friend’s demeanor changed. She appeared shocked and visibly upset after the attendant walked away. When she and the white male passenger behind us told me what happened, I suggested we write a complaint to AA. At that time, a number of AA personnel were on the plane allowing new passengers to board our delayed flight. A female flight attendant walked by and I asked for the male flight attendant’s name, given his rude and aggressive tone to my friend. There was some confusion as to whether the male AA employee in question was a flight attendant, a pilot, etc so before walking away to assist other passengers, she directed us to “point him out to me when you see him.” After she walked away, we saw him again and my friend took a picture so the female flight attendant could help identify him for us. A third flight attendant walked by and told us that by taking a picture, we were committing a “federal offense”. (Disclaimer: taking a photo of an airline crew member is not a federal offense, but apparently there is a publicly unknown AA policy that crew members can arbitrarily enforce with customers when a photo is taken without their consent.) The initial female flight attendant came back, asked us what happened, and we showed her the picture. She identified the male flight attendant as “Rog as in Roger” and then asked that we delete the picture. We immediately obliged and deliberately showed the flight attendant that we were deleting the picture. Thankfully, we still had the picture saved because it went to the “delete” folder.

Ten minutes later, AA customer relations representative Ms. Lourdes Broco boarded the plane and kindly asked if we could follow her to the front. We happily consented, hoping we were finally going to be provided with water, but instead we were told to bring our belongings. Waiting for us at the ramp were several armed Air Marshalls and Miami-Dade police officers. When asked why we were being removed, we were informed that it was because “Rog” felt threatened by us. However, the white male passenger my friend was speaking to was ironically not removed from the plane with us. We complied with all requests and provided Ms. Broco with our version of the events. She apologized and stated that under normal conditions, the male flight attendant would have been removed from the plane, but AA couldn’t spare to do that given the extreme flight delay and the many issues with the crew. She freely admitted that it was obvious that the flight attendant “exaggerated” the incident. We also overheard Ms. Broco inform the security officers that when she boarded the plane to assess the situation, she was confused because we weren’t creating a scene, we were sitting in silence playing on our phones.

Without asking for anything, we were assigned to the next available flight to DCA, we were offered a $200 credit for future travel with American Airlines and a $24 food voucher, but the damage was already done. We appreciated both Ms. Broco’s attempt to offer us some compensation and the 5 security officers good humor in deescalating the situation. However, it didn’t take away from the fact that a rude AA employee got away with treating passengers with such utter contempt and discrimination. Although we were encouraged to document the incident to AA customer relations, we still experienced insult and embarrassment as two minority Muslim-American women. For being such a “threat” to an AA attendant, it’s telling that the Miami-Dade police officers joked with us and posed for this picture with the “pretty harmless” airplane menaces. This was a fairytale ending in comparison to the other largely publicized AA incidents targeting Muslim Americans (one was actually a Sikh) that occurred earlier this year. Our story also has many parallels to an incident experienced by Internet political and social commentator Cenk Uygur, who was removed from an AA flight in April 2016. Could this be a trend?

We eventually left MIA at 12:40 am the next morning on AA flight number 1486, which arrived at DCA at 2:50 am on 3 August. Consequently, we both missed work that day. This entire experience was not very “American” of AA and the incident demonstrated the ongoing, indiscrete racism that I was untouched by prior to 9/11.

I guess it’s now worthless to even complain about the inbound 3 hour flight delay we experienced departing from DCA to start our vacation to Miami. We hope that Department of Transportation will hold AA accountable given that new rules state that an airline can be fined up to $27,500 for each passenger on board a flight affected by egregious tarmac delays.

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/niala.khalil/posts/756039610633