A Muslim media influencer and 2020 Democratic congressional primary candidate, 28 year old Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, was removed from an American Airlines flight from Newark to Charlotte prior to departure today after an altercation with a man seated in first class.
Since she refused to leave the aircraft ‘unless he was removed also’ the entire plane was offloaded. She got off last, and was taken into custody. She is claiming discrimination and has sought assistance from the Council on American Islamic Relations.
The incident began at the TSA security checkpoint. Apparently she was taking awhile in line, there was an opening ahead of her, so he passed her by and went through. She let him know she found this unacceptable, though I see it happen all the time with the TSA’s encouragement even.
He then proceeded to not only shove his things before mine, but then RUN THROUGH THE MACHINE and TSA did NOTHING!
Not only did they not do anything, a TSA officer had the audacity to tell ME to “cut it out.” 2/3
— AMANI (@AMANI2020) November 14, 2020
She’s right, as she later says, that she’d be looked on differently if she ‘threw a temper tantrum and ran through security’ as a Muslim woman, although that’s not what she describes this man having done.
This would have been the end of it except that the two passengers turned out to be on the same American Airlines Airbus A319 flight AA2029. She says the man ‘made a complaint about’ her to American Airlines, after the plane had boarded and “they’re taking his word for it” and asking her to leave. She livestreamed the encounter. At this point we don’t have the other passenger’s or flight crew’s side of the story.
Note that language in this video is ‘NSFW’:
The other passenger – as the woman, who founded MuslimGirl.com kept reminding us – was in first class (row 1). The most oft-repeated phrase in the video is ‘first class’. She refuses to leave, so the airline offloads everyone, but tells the rest of the passengers around her that they’re having to get off the plane and take a delay because the airline won’t remove the first class passenger.
In the video she says she’s ‘just trying to get home’ though since she ran this summer in New Jersey’s 6th Congressional district Democratic primary it’s likely she wasn’t in fact headed home on a flight departing Newark. She ran against Frank Pallone promoting Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and cancelling all student debt. Her website has claimed that the Israeli government harvests organs, and her Wikipedia profitle reports she’s claimed 9/11 was an inside job.
Others seem to be siding with her as well, though most of the passengers didn’t likely see or hear what was said prior to the airline asking the woman to leave.
Once she disembarked the aircraft, officers informed her she was under arrest and removed her from the jet bridge in handcuffs.
@PANYNJ Police escorted her off the plane in handcuffs!! pic.twitter.com/jDUQhZMwzG
— Jake (@yesjaketapia) November 14, 2020
The flight was eventually delayed 1 hour 1 minute on departure but made up 20 minutes enroute. According to American Airlines,
We are aware of an incident that took place between two passengers before and during boarding of flight 2029 at Newark Liberty International Airport. We are concerned by these allegations and our team is working to understand what occurred.
“Flying while Muslim” is absolutely a thing. Here we have no idea whether the removal of this passenger was justified or not, since we don’t know why the decision was made. I’m reserving judgment until I learn more, though I’m of course open to it being for an improper purpose. At this point we only know that once the passenger was asked to leave she refused to do so.
Update: 7:56 p.m. Eastern: American Airlines adds an additional statement,
We are actively investigating an incident that took place between two passengers before and during boarding of flight 2029 at Newark Liberty International Airport. We are concerned by these allegations and our team is actively working to learn more about what occurred.
We have reached out to both passengers, and are in the process of interviewing crew members, other passengers onboard, as well as witnesses from the TSA checkpoint. In addition, we are working with local law enforcement and have requested video footage from Terminal A and security.
Initial witness accounts indicate the conflict began during TSA screening. Both PreCheck and non-PreCheck screening were consolidated into one open lane. Our understanding is that Ms. Al-Khatahtbeh believed the other passenger, who is enrolled in PreCheck, was getting favorable treatment because he was allowed to proceed through security while she was removing her shoes. This led to a verbal altercation that continued through the terminal and on the plane where Ms. Al-Khatahtbeh confronted the passenger and began filming him before taking her seat.
We take this issue seriously and our team is working as fast as possible to understand what occurred. We have reached out to CAIR NJ to brief them on our investigation.
They need to ban the Cry Baby Karen from American Airlines.
Obviously, we don’t know the whole story, but if I’m on the security line and having trouble getting my shoes off (where pre-check isn’t available of course), and there’s empty space ahead of me, I see no reason why the person behind me shouldn’t go through rather than hold the whole line up. It would have been nice to say something to the person you’re walking by.
@ Gary — She should have ben removed for not wearing a proper mask.
@ Gary — Her mask aside, this incident reeks of racial profiling/discrimination. I hope she wins a lawsuit against American Airlines.
There are lots of entitled jerks who ride first class. Clearly, this first class passenger has an attitude and decided to use his privilege to abuse this poor woman. Hopefully we can find out who he is instead of just who she is.
Why couldn’t they just drag her off? That seems to be the customary procedure. Do Muslims get special treatment?
@Gene – Hmm, no. I’m 99.9% in agreement with you on comments you write here, but you got it wrong here. Let’s not embrace a hateful and dark person (take a look at her record) for any reason.
She is a racist POS plain and simple (only masking as a “progressive”).
Ohhh she’s a muslim. Ohhh she’s a woman. Whatever she did – doesn’t matter!
Bad white guy! Ohhhhh!!!
Sums it up with some of you. Now go punch yourself.
@ Dude26 — I’ll take your word on this. There are always two sides to the story, and obviously the other side has been completely left out here, so I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. I started trying research her following your comment, and the first gazillion Google hits were of course on this story. She has gotten enough attention…
I read about a study years ago about a certain incident between a police officer and a young African-American man in Michigan. The details were very sparse. Each person surveyed had an equal lack of knowledge of the facts of the incident, however he or she filled in the missing details with a whole set of assumed facts based on matching the one known characteristic of each person involved. Which, by the way, is the the same methodology as racial profiling.
Stories like this are a Rorschach test. The only way to pass the test is to admit that until many more lines are filled in, it is nothing but an inkblot.
Much more needs to be known about this incident. The only thing that is indisputable is the cops arrested her. It also can’t be disputed that cops have always been the means by which the privileged have enforced their privilege. From runaway slaves to lunch counter segregation and Jim Crow laws, to busting unions, to Sundown towns, to the Amy Coopers and others who assume the police will side with them to resolve a dispute with a minority. It is a corruption of the police power.
Also making up time “enroute” is pretty much a myth especially in this case. The flight may have been only 41 minutes late but the pilot didn’t fly faster or get a more direct routing between EWR and CLT that shaved 20 minutes off the flying time on a flight that should be about one hour 20 minutes or less from TO to TD.
@Gene. You’re right, there are two sides to this story……her side……and the truth.
Nobody care
Must be discrimination right? Cuz she is muslim right? Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that she refused to deboard and caused them to have to evacuate the whole damn plan could it? I noticed she was tweeting at the airline when she was refusing to get off the plane. Why the hell would the guy need to wait for her to take her shoes off when he has precheck and doesn’t need to take his shoes off? Move the line along. Also, notice how she tweets things like ALL white people need to apologize for Trump and crap like that. She is a clear racist. That she goes straight to pulling out the camera and claiming discrimination just shows how nonsensical her claims are. This is jerry springer content and has nothing to do with travel.
She seems like a complete PITA. Kicking up a fuss because a guy went past her when she was holding up the line? Sad.
According to the story at NJ.Com – When she boarded, she followed the guy to his seat and continued to harass him there.
IMO – That alone gives cause for removal. She’s making this a whole racist/privilege issue, when really she was acting like a childish asshole.
As for the security line thing: Once people get to the end where your removing shoes and such – The TSA has always told people waiting to go around. If the line stopped for every non-frequent flyer to slowly remove their shoes, electronics, coat, etc… etc…The line would be even more miserable. It’s a long table with multiple spots to stand at. Was she truly suggesting that nobody use those spots, until she was ready? That’s ridiculous.
Thank god. That guy saved the plane from being flown into a building. Read the Quran and see what it teaches Muslims to do. If trump would of learn to keep his mouth shut for 2 seconds he would of beat biden easily, but he is to stupid to realize that. Now we have the left making it ok to hate America etc… there is a reason they flew planes into the twin towers…
This isn’t a case of flying while Muslim. It’s a case of flying while being a bitch.
“Muslim media influencer”?
The woman doesn’t even have 25k followers on Twitter.
This doesn’t sound like a case of Flying While Muslim. It sounds like Flying With Attitude.
Let’s be honest, I think most of us can parse what happened here. And it probably goes something like: she went nuts on the guy in security, he retaliated some, and when she boarded the flight she went off on him again and started filming which is what the crew members saw.
Since she was the aggressor, off she comes.
She is trash.
She lost me with her first tweet. What does the fact that her nemesis was “white” have to do with anything in this incident?
“Our understanding is that Ms. Al-Khatahtbeh believed the other passenger, who is enrolled in PreCheck, was getting favorable treatment because he was allowed to proceed through security while she was removing her shoes.”
LOL my god that’s embarrassing. She tried to shame the other passenger and make him go viral but it turns out she’s just a moron with a victim complex.
Someone should tell Ms “Influencer’ that Pre-Check passengers do not have to remove shoes. And, maybe she should wear flip flaps if it takes her too long to take her shoes off. It’s not like you don’t have time to take them off before going through the metal detector or scanner. She should have step aside to let anyone past if they already had their shoes off or if they didn’t have to take them off. But it sounds like the guy in first class got harassed when when she was boarding the plane.
Additionally, if she ran for Congress in the primary, had she moved of out NYC, because she claimed she was on “her way home” after boarding the flight to North Carolina. Or, did she illegally run in the NY Primary while residing in NC?
Did the Trump-appointed US ambassador to Denmark — namely, Carla Sands — illegally register to vote, and thereafter illegally vote, in the 2020 Pennsylvania general election? While she is originally from Pennsylvania and sold a home in California in or after 2017, she was domiciled in California just prior to moving to Denmark for her appointment by Trump (for being a California donor/fundraiser and California GOP member for Trump in 2016). And yet US Ambassador Carla Sands was registered to vote and voted in the election in Pennsylvania in 2020. Did Trump’s ambassador to Denmark vote illegally in Florida?
No, but did Trump’s ambassador to Denmark vote illegally in Pennsylvania?
We’ll never know all the details but it’s not unusual for people to get upset when precheck passengers are allowed to walk by the regular line and are placed in front of regular passengers. It also sounds like she was slow in getting through the line which again it’s not unusual for the TSA to even ask you to come on through. although maybe he was just a jerk. She later approached his seat on the plane and confronted him which is what sparked the complaint to the FA. I also like how she is a 9-11 insider conspiracy person yet her bio claims she watched the planes hit the towers as a kid. Maybe she was just mad because she lost the election but can you imagine the headlines on this if she had won. Oh and @GUWonder let’s stay on topic, this doesn’t involve Trump, Denmark or Pennsylvania.
Lol, she prolly cruises 66 mph in the passing lane of a hway with a 65 mph limit.
Sounds like this woman is a racist psycho claiming immunity because she’s a muslim woman.
video at the check point going to surface ?
If you read her story, on twitter and in this article, you will find that she recorded the other passenger through the terminal and on the airplane. No wonder the other passenger complained.
https://www.nj.com/news/2020/11/muslim-woman-who-ran-for-nj-congress-says-she-was-unfairly-removed-from-newark-flight.html
IMO they were justified to pull her from the aircraft. It will be interesting to see if she releases all of the video she recorded in the terminal and of the other passenger on the aircraft.
David
Five minutes of fame!
Once again GU Wonder has attempted to hijack a thread with his or her political rantings. Never ceases to amaze me.
Hang on…just another manifestation of how these people are dead set on literally taking over the world. All they have to do is throw a race card or two (muslin and black), be rude and obnoxious and everyone is so petrified of them and they can’t roll over fast enough to bow down to them. Whoever at AA who took the removal action will be fired as their senior management runs for cover to deflect the backlash, especially now they have gone out of their way to cozy up the the BLM movement.
I have revised my opinion about this incident.
The male first class passenger wanted the female second class passenger offloaded because she made him “feel uncomfortable” being on the same flight.
I may “feel uncomfortable” in AA economy class when the economy class cabin is full, but that is a bad reason for the AA to remove passengers who may make me “feel uncomfortable” on the flight.
I do not wish to judge the particular incident but appropriate conduct for a Muslim would be to encourage another to go around if you are taking more time for some reason (I have done this) and would not be to inconvenience a plane full of people.
We need to get used to this bad behavior.. Make allowance in your schedule for boarding multiple times and arriving 5 hours late.
Why? Because copycats will be jumping on the bandwagon. They will figure its OK to be arrested and maybe spend a night in jail if it will boost their follower count. No slight will be too small for any “influencer” wanting to become the next hero in the Oppression Olympics.
he likes to do this for clout. https://postalnews.com/blog/2016/11/30/muslim-woman-says-she-was-denied-service-at-nyc-post-office/
I read where he said he had pre-check and she was taking a long time (probably on purpose) so he went around her. She then wouldn’t stop harassing him about the TSA incident. There are always two sides to the story. We really need to stop with the race, ethnicity and gender backwards stereotypes. She is a bad human regardless of what religion she is.
The worst part of this is the amount of money AA is wasting “actively investigating an incident that took place between two passengers before and during boarding of flight 2029 at Newark Liberty International Airport. We are concerned by these allegations and our team is actively working to learn more about what occurred”. All frequent flyers know exactly what happened. The Muslim woman was taking her time and the TSA agent was happy for a Pre-check passenger to move forward, which he did with alacrity. It made security screening faster for everyone. No incident to investigate, no team needed, no need to reach out to CAIR NJ to brief them. The only thing that is needed is to blacklist or whitelist, whichever you prefer, the woman and make sure she doesn’t inconvenience other travelers in the future. Her supposed right to Muslim female privilege cost every other passenger on the flight, as well as the crew, forty minutes each. What about an apology from her for the time she stole, from each of them? Still friends don’t worry, it is only going to get worse in Biden Loves Mamala times.
@Harry You are right. That bad behavior should not be tolerated, let alone rewarded.
@TheRestofAmerica If your TV is permanently stuck on one channel then you might be part of the problem. It’s time for everyone to start thinking for themselves.
Today Bernie supporters have about as much love for Biden as Trump supporters do. America has allowed itself become divided by the greedy technology companies who will sacrifice democracy for profit. They are expert at dialing up your rage to satisfy their lust for advertiser dollars. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and their imitators have unleashed the pitchfork crowd on our notions of what constitutes civil behavior. This incident is but one example.
Like him or not, we need to give Biden a chance to heal the nation, rather than throwing gasoline on the fire..
CAIR has to waste their time dealing with complaints from fatheads like this?
The one bright note: She promises never to fly AA again.
I’m so confused. She is offended because…while she was getting ready to go through the xray machine. Someone who was already ready, went through. She calls this a “temper tantrum”(what on earth?) and admits she lashed out at this stranger for doing nothing wrong.
Honestly the only weird thing to me here is that American took his word and kicked her off. But jesus christ, do we not see this exact same person at every airport? Takes 5 minutes to get ready for the xray machine but also manages to find the time to get offended that the people behind them are just going around them versus being perpetually blocked by them? Maybe instead of deciding that everyone should operate on your schedule, you could have a single ounce of self awareness or empathy?
She has many pounds, forget a few ounces, of self awareness, she is so aware that she is a woman and a muslim. And as for empathy, she empathizes 24/7 with BLM.
And as for empathy, she empathizes 24/7 with BLM because she is so aware that she is a “person of color”. Must be tough going through life thinking the world is against you on three imaginary counts. Could she by chance be a lesbian, sorry member of the LGBT community, as well? That would add some icing to the cake! Friends, we can all build mountains of chips to put on our shoulders but life is so much better if you are positive.
There is no evidence at all that American took his word. Having seen similar temper tantrums a couple of times before from seemingly entitled or half-drunk passengers, my guess is that the crew decided that it would be unsafe to fly with this creature and had her removed. They simply did it in the least provocative way, no doubt because she is a muslim and apparently a woman, and it was clear she would scream prejudice, all the while being willing to settle her claim for an “undisclosed sum” and a lot of groveling from American with appropriate noises about it mending its bad ways.
“Much more needs to be known about this incident.” No there doesn’t. Mind your own business and let the appropriate people handle it. Why do people feel the need to stick their nose in others business all the time. sheesshh
Must you really leave up comments like this from a**holes like Harry?
`Could she by chance be a lesbian, sorry member of the LGBT community, as well? ‘