Muslim Couple Deboarded From Flight For “Sweating”, Saying “Allah”

Nazia and Faisal Ali have accused Delta Air Lines of Islamophobia. They were thrown off their US bound flight.

A Pakistani-American couple has claimed that they were removed from a US-bound flight as a crew member onboard felt “uncomfortable” after noticing that they were “sweating”, saying “Allah” and texting.

Nazia and Faisal Ali have accused Delta Air Lines of Islamophobia. The airline threw them off their flight from Paris to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Nazia, 34, had finished sending a text message to her parents and was and settling into her seat for the nine-hour flight from Paris to Cincinnati when a Delta Air Lines crew member approached her and husband, Faisal and asked them to step out.

The crew member had complained to the pilot that she was uncomfortable with the Muslim couple since the woman was wearing a head scarf and using a phone, and the man was sweating, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The pilot contacted the ground crew and would not take off until couple was removed.

“We had been in our seats for 45 minutes,” Nazia said on Friday in the Cincinnati area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

“The ground agent said, ‘Can you step out with me? We’d like to ask you a few questions.’ So I said, ‘Do you want us to get our things?’ And he said, ‘Yes, please grab all of your personal belongings. You’re not going to be on this flight’,” Nazia said recounting the incident that took place on 26 July.

They were interrogated by a French police officer about their stay in Paris where the couple had been enjoying a brief holiday in the capital city for their 10th wedding anniversary, media reports said.

After the interrogation, the officer said he had no problem with them and there was nothing else he could ask the couple.

In the wake of the couple’s removal from the flight, the Muslim advocacy group, CAIR has filed a religious profiling complaint against Delta Air Lines to the US Department of Transportation.

We call on the US Department of Transportation to conduct a thorough examination into the prevailing practices of major American air carriers, including Delta Air Lines, and to develop policy guidelines on the objective factors that are to be considered when determining that a passenger may legally be removed from a flight.

Sana Hassan, CAIR Advocate

Delta Airlines, in a statement, said,

Delta condemns discrimination toward our customers in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender. As a global airline that brings hundreds of thousands of people together every day, Delta is deeply committed to treating all of our customers with respect. Delta continues its investigation into this matter and will issue a full refund of these customers’ airfare.

(With inputs from PTI)