Faizah Shaheen, a British Muslim woman, was detained by airport security while returning to England from her honeymoon in Turkey after a flight attendant reported her for “suspicious behaviour” while reading a book about Syria.
The Independent reports that Shaheen, an employee with UK’s National Health Service, was questioned for 15 minutes by authorities at Doncaster Sheffield Airport in South Yorkshire who were using their powers under the UK’s Terrorism Act.
Shaheen said while being questioned, officers told her a Thomson Airways flight attendant had reported her for “suspicious behaviour” during a flight. The incident occurred on July 25, according to South Yorkshire Police.
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“I asked what was going on and they said I had been reported due to a book I was reading and was to be questioned under the Terrorism Act,” Shaheen told The Independent. “I became very angry and upset. I couldn’t understand how reading a book could cause people to suspect me like this. I told the police that I didn’t think it was right or acceptable.”
The book in question, titled Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline, is a collection of essays, short stories, poems, cartoons and photographs from over 50 Syrian authors and artists “who are challenging the culture of violence in Syria.”
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Shaheen works with teens with mental illness and also helps to prevent teens from becoming radicalized.
“Ironically, a part of my job role is working on anti-radicalisation and assessing vulnerable young people with mental health problems who are at risk of being radicalised,” she said.
In a statement to British media outlets Thomson Airways said it recognizes that “in this instance Ms. Shaheen may have felt that over caution had been exercised over caution However, like all airlines, our crew are trained to report and concerns they may have as a precaution.”
Incidents occurring in the U.S.
In a separate incident in the U.S, two Muslim women were removed from an American Airlines flight earlier this week after an airline attendant said they made him feel “threatened” and “unsafe.”
Niala Mohammad, a multimedia journalist with the government-funded news outlet Voice of America and her friend, who works for the U.S. government and does not want to be identified, stated they were thrown off the plane because they were Muslim.
In a Facebook post, Mohammad wrote that the plane travelling from Miami to Washington D.C. on August 2 had been delayed for five hours. She said her friend started talking about the delay and the lack of customer service with another passenger when the male flight attendant allegedly singled her out saying: “If you have a problem, you can get off the plane.”
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Mohammad and her friend then tried to take a photo of the flight attendant who was not wearing a name tag so they could file a complaint.
A federal agent later escorted Mohammad and her companion from the plane because they were told the flight attendant had complained, saying he “felt threatened” by the pair.
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The two women were offered seats on the next available flight and received a $200 credit voucher and $24 food voucher.
“Although we were encouraged to document the incident to AA customer relations, we still experienced insult and embarrassment as two minority Muslim-American women,” Mohammad wrote on Facebook. “For being such a ‘threat’ to an AA attendant, it’s telling that the Miami-Dade police officers joked with us and posed for this picture with the ‘pretty harmless’ airplane menaces.”
A spokesperson for American Airlines said the male flight attendant observed the passenger taking pictures and asked her to stop. When she did not, the attendant had her removed from the plane.
“The passenger was not removed for taking the picture,” said spokeswoman Alexis Aran Coello, told Voice of America. “The passenger was removed because she did not comply with the request from the flight attendant.”
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it is seeing more and more reports of discrimination against Muslims across the U.S., including a Muslim couple in Ohio who were allegedly removed from a Delta Airline flight.
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“We are seeing a significant increase in discrimination against Muslims across the country these days,” Karen Dabdoub, executive director of CAIR’s Cincinnati Office, told Global News.
“Historically we see this happen during presidential election season. And this particular presidential season has been one of the most vitriolic in regards to Muslims.”
CAIR-Cincinnati has filed a complaint against Delta with the U.S. Department of Transportation on behalf of the couple who were removed from a flight.
“As far as we were able to determine the couple was kicked off the flight because the flight attendant did not feel comfortable having them on the flight,” said Dabdoub.
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