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Home Front: WoT
Muslim woman sues Southwest Air for kicking her off plane
2011-10-07
...after steward thought she said 'It's a go' on her phone.

A Mohammedan woman is suing Southwest Airlines after she was thrown off a plane after the flight attendant thought she heard her say 'it's a go' on her cellphone.

Irum Abbasi, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Pakistain a decade ago, was seated on the plane ready to depart from San Diego for San Jose when she told her friend on the phone: 'I have to go.'

Crew members became suspicious of her behaviour, mistaking her words for 'it's a go' and alerted the TSA.

Ms Abbasi, who was wearing a hijab, was then escorted from the flight by a TSA official.

Irum Abbasi, a graduate student in experimental psychology, believes she was discriminated against because she was wearing an Islamic headscarf.

Civil liberties attorney James McElroy and representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
, who filed the lawsuit on Ms Abbasi's behalf, have scheduled a news conference for today in San Diego to discuss the case.

At the time, Mrs Abbasi said of the incident: 'I was in tears. I was just crying. I have lived in the United States for 10 years. I am a U.S. citizen.'

She said that TSA agents patted down her headscarf but soon realised their mistake and did not even inspect her handbag or cellphone. But they refused to let her back on the plane because the crew was 'uncomfortable' with her presence, she was told.

Afterwards, she said the verbal apology 'doesn't make me feel better. This time they said we weren't comfortable with the head scarf. Next time, they won't be comfortable with my accent or they won't be comfortable with my South Asian heritage.'
Posted by:

#10  Tell her to sue her co-religionists. I hate it that the KKK has made people wary of Southerners. I have even been accused of being a member and denying it as ALL white people from Alabama are members. It's unfortunate that this happens but is understandable.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2011-10-07 18:49  

#9  Yes, I would have a difficult time believing that, with SW Airlines' service area, that this would be the first time a crew member came across a south asian in hajib, so I think that she was doing something which made enough of the crew nervous enough to do something about it.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2011-10-07 15:56  

#8  Help..what the crap is experimental psychology?
Just the kind of thing Irum Abbasi was doing on that Southwest Airlines plane.
Seriously, the infamous Milgram experiments were experimental psychology, measuring how people behaved in realities they thought were real. His book "Obedience to Authority" should be required of every high school graduate, but scarcely anyone is aware of his work. IIRC, the only experimental subject who behaved using common sense had previously survived a Nazi concentration camp.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2011-10-07 15:28  

#7  In my experience, so does everyone else, BP.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2011-10-07 15:09  

#6  Most psychologists can't do the Stats, so they just make it up. Fake science that makes the AGW peddlers look consistent.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2011-10-07 12:24  

#5  See what I mean. I guess a tagger slanderer.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2011-10-07 12:15  

#4  Thank you TW, I guess that makes sense, but my money is on the rats figuring it out first.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2011-10-07 12:12  

#3  Does that include receiving end of riot stick, taser, pepper spray and .40 caliber slug?
Posted by: M. Murcek   2011-10-07 12:10  

#2  Experimental psychology means they're testing theories either on rats or on psych students, swksvolFF. If she's a grad student she gets both to carry a clipboard and ask the prewritten questions and be on the receiving end.
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-10-07 11:56  

#1  Southwest Airlines has a fairly decent recent record of kicking off anyone being a jackhole. Fact is, at the end of the day that plane belongs to the captain and crew.

Help..what the crap is experimental psychology?
Posted by: swksvolFF   2011-10-07 11:52  

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