Two Black Muslim men have sued Alaska Airlines for discrimination after they said the airline removed them from a flight following a fellow passenger’s complaint over text messages in Arabic and would not allow them to travel together on rebooked flights.
Attorneys with the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which first publicized the incident in December 2020, filed the suit in federal court on Aug. 2. The group said in a statement that the lawsuit claims a federal and state violation of the men’s civil rights as paying passengers on the flight.
The situation unfolded on Feb. 17, 2020, when Abobakkr Dirar and Mohamed Elamin, both U.S. citizens born in Sudan, were in first class waiting to fly from Seattle to San Francisco. The men, colleagues in a medical transport business, were planning to buy work vehicles and drive them back to Washington state, where they both lived.
Source: Muslim men sue Alaska airlines for removal from flight over Arabic texts