A young U.S. Muslim woman was forced off a plane at the Newark Liberty International Airport while trying to fly to Istanbul, Turkey, for a vacation. The victim of the racially-charged case said the incident was with the intention to “humiliate” her.
Kameelah Rasheed was forced off the United Airlines flight after already going through regular airport security and being subjected to further questioning by customs officers. She was eventually let on the plane, but was called off again ahead of takeoff in order to face further questioning by FBI agents, Rasheed explained to Al Jazeera Wednesday.
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According to Rasheed, a New York resident, she was the only passenger on board Tuesday's flight who looked Muslim as she was wearing a headscarf, and the only one of about 200 passengers who was asked to leave the plane.
Photo of Kameelah Rasheed taken from her Twitter account @_kameelahr.
“I think this happened because I'm Muslim, because I'm travelling to Istanbul, because they have power with no checks and balances, because security means violating people's rights, because there's a general lack [of understanding of] what safety means, because people don't understand basic geopolitical situations,” said Rasheed told Al Jazeera.
“It was an attempt to humiliate and ostracize me,” she added.
Thank you everyone. I've been released. I appreciate all your kind words. I'm going home to Brooklyn. Will come up for air in a few days.
— Kameelah (@_kameelahr) November 25, 2015
I've been going back and forth with @united and @lufthansa to get at least a refund for the flight I was thrown off. I do want my $.
— Kameelah (@_kameelahr) November 26, 2015
The experience was even enough to make Rasheed cancel her trip, even though the airline had booked another ticket for her after intense questioning by officials, over fear that the same discrimination would continue along her journey.
When asked whether the discrimination was an after effect of the attacks in Paris by Islamic State group extremists earlier this month Rasheed – an artist, educator, Stanford University graduate, Fulbright scholar and contributing editor to The New Inquiry – said no, rather Islamophobia has long been normalized in the West.
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“I don't think there is a resurgence of Islamophobia after the Paris attacks. I think it never went away. It's becoming more legitimized,” she said.
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“Right after 9/11, you could do it [commit hate crimes towards Muslims] for a couple of years and no one would blame you… And now after Paris, it's like, 'look at what they did, I can treat them how I want'. We didn't make any progress.”
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