CAIR-WA Filed a Lawsuit Against Alaska Airlines for 'Flying While Muslim'

[cbabe]

https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/08/17/news-gleams-cair-wa-lawsuit-against-alaska-airlines-reproductive-rights-legislation-signed-into-law/#CAIR-WA-Filed-a-Lawsuit-Against-Alaska-Airlines-for-Flying-While-Muslim

CAIR-WA Filed a Lawsuit Against Alaska Airlines for ‘Flying While Muslim’

by Nura Ahmed

On Aug. 8, 2022, CAIR Washington, a chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, along with the CAIR National Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against Alaska Airlines. The suit alleges discrimination against two Black male passengers — both bearded, Sudanese, and Muslim — based on a discredited complaint of a fellow passenger.

“Abobakkr was texting in Arabic with a friend who was not on the flight. Another passenger, who did not speak or read Arabic, was snooping as Abobakkr texted. Seeing the Arabic language made this passenger upset, and they complained to Alaska Airlines personnel,” writes CAIR-WA’s press release. In response, CAIR-WA asserts that Alaska Airlines removed them from the flight, “subjecting the men to additional security measures after having already reviewed Abobakkr’s phone and confirm[ing] to police that the text messages were innocuous and that the men posed no threat, and explicitly prohibiting them from traveling together on re-booked later flights.”

The case that CAIR-WA filed requests that Alaska Airlines pay for damages and demands a jury trial, claiming federal and state violations of the two passengers’ civil rights. To prevent similar situations from happening again, CAIR-WA also asks for an injunction to order Alaska Airlines to provide cultural and racial sensitivity training for their employees, as well as establish culturally sensitive protocols and procedures in handling passenger complaints.