Muslim Woman Gets Apology from United Airlines

United Airlines has apologized to Tahera Ahmad, the Northwestern chaplain who claims she was discriminated against by a flight attendant over the weekend over a can of Diet Coke.

“While United did not operate the flight, Ms. Ahmad was our customer and we apologize to her for what occurred on the flight,” read a statement the airlines posted on their website at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday. “United does not tolerate behavior that is discriminatory – or that appears to be discriminatory - against our customers or employees.”

The flight attendant, a Shuttle America employee whose name was not released, will also no longer serve United customers, the statement read.

The story captured national attention, inspired much discussion and prompted a social media boycott of the airline.

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Ahmad, an associate chaplain and the director of interfaith engagement at the Evanston University, was heading to the nation’s capital Saturday morning to participate in a conference hosted by Kids4Peace, an interfaith youth movement.

During the flight, according to her posts on Facebook, she was given an opened can of Diet Coke, asked for an unopened can for sanitary reasons, was told by the flight attendant that was against company policy but then saw a man nearby being served an unopened can of beer.

“Ahmad replied that she was clearly being discriminated against, noting the unopened can of beer,” according to previous reports. “Ahmad claims the flight attendant grabbed the man’s beer and opened it for him and said ‘it’s so you don’t use it as a weapon.’ Ahmad looked to fellow passengers for some acknowledgment the flight attendant was being discriminatory. And for that, she was brought to tears.

A man in the aisle next to her leaned over, Ahmad claims, and said, “You Moslem, you need to shut the f--- up. ... You know you would use it as a weapon, so shut the f--- up.”

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Ahmad wears a hijab, the traditional head covering of Muslim women.

United included in its response all “customer-facing employees undergo annual and recurrent customer service training, which includes lessons in cultural awareness.” “Customer-facing employees for Shuttle America also undergo cultural sensitivity training, and United will continue to work with all of our partners to deliver service that reflects United’s commitment to cultural awareness.”

On Tuesday, Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro had called on United Airlines to formally apologize to Ahmad calling the treatment “outrageous and discriminatory.”

“Tahera Ahmad is the Muslim chaplain at Northwestern, one of the few female Muslim chaplains in the country, and an esteemed leader in our community,” Schapiro said in a Chicago Tribune article. “Yet she was treated with a complete lack of respect. … The extraordinarily unprofessional and humiliating treatment of one of our community members is shockingly disappointing.”

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Ahmad recently appeared in a PBS documentary portraying the struggles of Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders and has led international workshops on cultural awareness for the U.S. State Department. She was recognized by President Barack Obama at the White House in 2014 for her pioneering work as a Muslim woman.