Newsrooms everywhere have rushed to report the unverified claims of a Muslim woman who said this weekend on social media that she was the victim of anti-Islam bigotry.
Tahera Ahmad, an associate chaplain and director of interfaith engagement at Northwestern University, said in a Facebook post Friday that an attendant for Shuttle America, which feeds United Airlines, refused to serve her an unopened can of Diet Coke.
When Ahmad, who was traveling to Washington, D.C., from Chicago for a conference on promoting dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, requested an unopened can for “hygienic reasons,” the flight attendant allegedly said that the airline’s security protocols bar employees from serving unopened beverages.
Ahmad said she insisted that she be served an unopened can.
“Well I’m sorry I just can’t give you an unopened can so no Diet Coke for you,” the flight attendant supposedly said. “We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane.”
As the diet soda incident unfolded, Ahmad’s fellow passengers were being served unopened beverages, she said.
Ahmad, who said she was wearing a hijab at the time of the alleged incident, said she noted the apparent double standard. That’s when things supposedly turned ugly for the Muslim woman.
“Apphauled [sic] 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,'” Ahmad wrote.
“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,” she wrote, adding the hashtag “#IslamophobialSREAL.”
Shortly after landing, she posted a now-deleted update to her Facebook page, adding further details to her story.
“At the end of the flight the flight attendant acknowledged that her behavior was utterly rude and said she was sorry about her unethical behavior and agreed that the white male passenger said hateful words that he should not have said,” she wrote.
Ahmad’s update continued, adding that the flight’s captain personally apologized to her for his “white privilege” and that he accompanied her to United’s front counter to help her file an official complaint.
Her story soon took off on social media, with thousands of users vowing to boycott United Airlines for the supposed act of anti-Islamic bigotry.
Media was not far behind, with newsrooms everywhere repeating Ahmad’s story. However, in their rush to cover on the alleged incident, media failed entirely to verify Ahmad’s story.
Online media groups, including the Guardian, CBC News, nbcnews.com, the Christian Science Monitor, the Daily Mail, the Chicago-Sun Times, the National Post, the New York Daily News, Mirror Online, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post and Raw Story, have repeated Ahmad’s claims without providing any sort of verification or proof that the incident occurred as described.
Coverage of the story has also varied, as some newsrooms have focused only on Ahmad’s unverified claims, while others have reported on the incident as a way to document the online backlash aimed at United Airlines.
As it stands, media’s coverage of the diet soda incident is based entirely on Ahmad’s say-so as well as vague responses from United Airlines spokespersons.
United Airlines, for its part, seemed to indicate that something happened related to Ahmad, but offered a more general response. The airline responded Saturday to the outrage aimed at it over Ahmad’s Facebook story, apologizing in a press release “for not delivering the service our customers expect when traveling with us.”
“The flight attendant onboard Shuttle America flight 3504 attempted several times to accommodate Ms. Ahmad’s beverage request after a misunderstanding regarding a can of diet soda. The inflight crew met with Ms. Ahmad after the flight arrived in Washington to provide assistance and further discuss the matter,” United said.
“Additionally, we spoke with Ms. Ahmad this afternoon to get a better understanding of what occurred,” it added. “We look forward to having the opportunity to welcome Ms. Ahmad back.”
The statement did not go over well with Ahmad, who said afterwards that she was “truly disappointed” that United had “dismissed” her “entire narrative.”
A spokesman for Shuttle America’s parent company, Republic Airways Holdings, told CNN Monday that the airline’s beverage policy doesn’t prohibit attendants from serving unopened cans.
“There is policy and procedure for the beverage service, and there is no differentiation between opened and unopened cans,” he said. “When a passenger requests a full can of soda, it must first be determined that enough quantity exists to provide beverage service throughout the cabin. I don’t believe that was the case here, as the passenger was offered a full can of soda.”
Ahmad has since deactivated her Facebook account. She has not responded to requests for comment from multiple media groups.
In December 2014, media was quick to repeat the unverified claims of an Australian woman who said she witnessed a public act of anti-Islamic bigotry while riding on a train. The woman’s story, which spawned the “#illridewithyou” hashtag campaign, later turned out to be a hoax.
UPDATE 06-03-2015: United Airlines updated its initial response to Ahmad’s story Wednesday, indicating that it had taken action again the flight attendant involved in the diet soda incident. From the press release:
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This post has been updated to include the updated statement from United Airlines.
