Muslim Family Booted Off United Flight For "Safety" Issues?

A mother and father and their three children boarded a plane in Chicago bound for Washington DC.  The mother asked if the stewardess could provide five-point harness safety seats for their children.

And then they were asked to leave the plane … oh yeah, they’re Muslims. And the pilot of that United Airlines flight cited "safety" issues as the reason for removing the family.

Eaman-Amy Saad Shebley, the mother, filmed two separate videos showing the stewardess and then the pilot asking them to leave. When Shebley asked is this was some “discriminatory” decision he simply said it was a “flight safety issue” and nothing more.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations sent a letter to United Airlines:

“We are tired of Muslim-looking passengers being removed from flights for the flimsiest reasons, under a cryptic claim of ‘security’. Security means securing passengers, not harassing and humiliating them and booting them off their flight for, of all things, actually asking for security.”

Eaman-Amy Saad Shebley wrote on Facebook:

“Shame on you ‪#‎UnitedAirlines for profiling my family and me for no reason other than how we look and kicking us off the plane for "safety flight issues" on our flight to DC for the kids spring break. My three kids are too young to have experienced this.”

The airline apologized multiple times to the Shebley family and rebooked them on another, perhaps less intolerant, flight, saying that the family was removed from their original flight because of concerns about their child’s safety seat, which did not comply with federal safety regulations.” They added that the airline has “zero tolerance for discrimination”.

Huh. Then why wasn’t that explained to the family? I mean, it sounds logical, so why not simply tell them that? United airlines, that pilot, and that flight attendant, should be ashamed of themselves.

Feeding into fear; spreading fear; just behaving badly. Whatever the excuse, they should be ashamed.

Independent