Two Muslim Men Accuse Alaska Airlines Of Removing Them From Flight For Texting In Arabic
Two Muslim men, Abobakkr and his friend, Mohamad, have accused Alaska Airlines of removing them from a flight for texting in Arabic.
The two men say the airlines crew violated their civil rights back in February when they were kicked off their first-class flight from Seattle to San Francisco. It’s stated that another passenger reportedly saw the two men texting in their native tongue, and reported them as suspicious, despite them not understanding what was being written and sent. The texts were eventually translated and proven innocent.
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Subsequent to the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) speaking out on their behalf and threatening a lawsuit, the airlines issued an apology. They said, “We’re sorry that two of our guests had such a distressing experience last February, when they were removed from their flight after a fellow passenger became concerned about the text messages his seatmate was sharing. Alaska Airlines strictly prohibits unlawful discrimination, and we take such complaints very seriously. Our greatest responsibility is to ensure that our flight operations are safe, and that was our goal on February 17th, as it is every day. We have launched an internal investigation of the incident to determine whether there were any missteps on our part, and are in contact with CAIR and the two guests.”
Following the issued statement, CAIR-WA said they’re pressing pause on the lawsuit and are looking to settle this as amicably as possible.
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