An American Muslim woman has narrated the horrifying ordeal she passed through in the hands of US security officials who hauled her off a plane.
Kameelah Rasheed
An American woman says she was escorted off a plane bound for Istanbul from New Jersey in a deliberate attempt to “humiliate and ostracise” her for being a Muslim, IndependentUK reports.
Kameelah Rasheed 30-year-old Stanford University graduate, artist and contributing editor at The New Inquiry said she was questioned for more than two hours by US officials at Newark Liberty International Airport in what she described as Islamophobic treatment. Ms Rasheed said she was singled out because she was “the only visibly Muslim person” on the flight of around 200.
Ms Rasheed said that she was initially allowed on the United Airlines flight after security checks and some additional questioning by customs officers. But before the plane could take off, she was forced to leave and interrogated by an FBI agent, she told al-Jazeera.
Asked if the questioning appeared to be as a result of heightened tensions following the shootings two weeks ago in Paris, Ms Rasheed said: “I don't think there is a resurgence of Islamophobia after the Paris attacks. I think it never went away. It's becoming more legitimised.
“Right after 9/11, you could do it [commit hate crimes towards Muslims] for a couple of years and no one would blame you… And now after Paris, it's like, 'look at what they did, I can treat them how I want'. We didn't make any progress.”
Ms Rasheed said she didn't blame her airline, which had been helpful in trying to secure her a refund. She said she felt “very angry and hurt”, and wouldn't want to fly for the foreseeable future.