A Muslim woman confronted a passenger a few seats ahead of her, demanding that flight attendants remove the “white man” who made her “feel uncomfortable.” However, she was shocked when employees hauled her off in handcuffs instead.
When it comes to religious conduct, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh doesn’t quite behave like the average Muslima. The social justice blogger sports a loose hijab, clothing that accentuates her curves, and the latest makeup trends, which often include the addition of colored contacts. However, her unconventional ways are just part and parcel of her influential activism.
While boasting the title of the first Muslim woman to run for New Jersey Congress, Al-Khatahtbeh failed in her campaign to beat 30-year Democrat incumbent Frank Pollone. Just months after losing with just 2.8-percent of the votes, the glamor girl has once again made headlines for yet another failed attempt to “unseat” a white man.
According to the Daily Mail, Al-Khatahtbeh was apparently blocking a TSA checkpoint at Newark Liberty Airport while removing her shoes when an “entitled white man” attempted to go ahead of her. When she refused to let him pass, she claims that this sparked a set of events that led to her arrest.
“I had the craziest experience in TSA this morning. An entitled white man behind me insisted on cutting me in line because I was ‘still taking my shoes off.’ When I said he could wait like everyone else, he started going off about how he’s ‘pre check’ and ‘first class,'” she wrote. “He then proceeded to not only shove his things before mine, but then RUN THROUGH THE MACHINE and TSA did NOTHING! Not only did they not do anything, a TSA officer had the audacity to tell ME to ‘cut it out.'”
American Airlines explained that both PreCheck and non-Precheck passengers were consolidated into a single lane. Shortly after the encounter, Al-Khatatbeh claims she was removed from the flight because she is a Muslim woman who made a white man feel “uncomfortable.” A video shows her agreeing to disembark as long as the man in question is removed from the plan as well. Unfortunately for her, the request was denied.
“I don’t want you guys to talk to me unless you also talk to the man who made the complaint against me. Is he coming out too?” Al-Khatahtbeh told authorities, according to the New Jersey Herald. “I refused to get off because they’re not taking the man that made me feel uncomfortable and complained about me off the plane,” she said to the camera.
Al-Khatahtbeh claims she was arrested because of her minority status. Her brother, who was on the plane at the time, claims she was removed because she “refused to take her hijab off.”
Authorities confirmed that Al-Khatahtbeh’s arrest came when she harassed the passenger after boarding. They stated that she was detained for nearly 4 hours before being charged. A spokesperson for the airline declined to say what charges Al-Khatahtbeh received.
“Our understanding is that Ms. Al-Khatahtbeh believed the other passenger, who is enrolled in PreCheck, was getting favorable treatment because he was allowed to proceed through security while she was removing her shoes,” the statement read. “This led to a verbal altercation that continued through the terminal and on the plane where Ms. Al-Khatahtbeh confronted the passenger and began filming him before taking her seat.”
Al-Khatahtbeh later continued her complaint on social media, attributing her arrest to racism and Islamophobia.
“This is what it looks like to fly as a Muslim woman in America,” she wrote on Facebook. “This may have happened to me, but imagine what countless other Muslim women and minorities must endure while traveling who may not be as well versed in their rights, or might not have the right understanding of how the system works, or may not know the language.”
Al-Khatahtbeh contacted the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to take on her case against American Airlines. The chapter’s executive director, Selaedin Maksut, claims that Al-Khatahtbeh was only handcuffed after she refused to remove her headscarf.
Unfortunately, we only have Al-Khatahtbeh’s version of the event. Due to the anonymity of the male passenger, his side of the story remains unknown. The airline maintains that she was the aggressor and was removed per protocol.
Al-Khatahtbeh continues to claim that she is a victim of anti-Muslim bias and sexism. She insists that if she wasn’t a “veiled Muslim woman,” she wouldn’t have been arrested in the first place.
Source: Tap Worthy Happenings
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