New York // A simple request for an unopened can of Diet Coke on a United Airlines flight left one woman in tears over the weekend, and led to calls by Muslim Americans to boycott the airline over charges of discrimination.
Tahera Ahmad, a Muslim-American chaplain at Chicago’s Northwestern University, alleged in a Facebook post that quickly went viral that a flight attendant refused to serve her an unopened can and was “clearly discriminating against me”.
Ms Ahmad, who wears a hijab, wrote that she asked for an unopened can for reasons of hygiene, but that the attendant refused, saying, “We are unauthorised to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon”.
However, the attendant gave a passenger next to her an unopened can of beer, Ms Ahmad alleged.
When she asked for an explanation for the discrepancy, she claimed the attendant repeated that it was a potential weapon. Ms Ahmad protested that she was being discriminated against, but what happened next left her in tears.
“You Muslim, you need to shut the f** up,” said a passenger sitting across the aisle from her, according to Ms Ahmad. “Yes you know you would use it as a weapon so shut the f** up.”
Ms Ahmad is a well-known Muslim-American voice who was honoured at the White House last year as a “leading Muslim female in the United States”, according to her biography on the Northwestern website. She was traveling to an event in Washington DC that promotes dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youth.
A United spokesman, Charles Hobart, declined to say whether the airline was taking action against the alleged derogatory remarks by passengers or if it has a policy against unopened cans.
Republic, a United partner airline that owns Shuttle America, which operated the flight, did not respond to questions about its policies.
In a statement, United said that the attendant “attempted several times to accommodate Ms Ahmad’s beverage request” and termed the incident a “misunderstanding”. United representatives spoke with Ms Ahmad on Saturday “to get a better understanding of what occurred and to apologise for not delivering the service our customers expect”.
However, Ms Ahmad said the statement was insufficient.
“United has dismissed my entire narrative and trivialised it to a can of soda … I have been served unopened canned beverages many times and I have followed United procedures in all of my travels,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “It is truly disheartening when the discrimination of Americans [such] as myself who are working hard everyday to promote dialogue and understanding is disregarded and trivialised.”
The experience was particularly demeaning because she was "publicly targeted as a threat to people", Ms Ahmad told the Chicago Sun newspaper. "That is a very horrible feeling."
She said the attendant apologised for her fellow passenger’s abusive language and the flight’s pilot also apologised and helped her file a complaint at the airport.
The incident is another in a long list of discrimination against Muslims, or those who appear to others to be Muslim, on domestic flights in the US.
It comes at a time of increasing hysteria in conservative media outlets and by Republican presidential hopefuls about the security threat posed by Muslims. Armed white supremacist biker gangs protested outside a Phoenix, Arizona, mosque during the prayer service on Friday, which observers pointed to as a result of the current atmosphere.
On social media Muslim Americans and others said they would boycott United.
“So @united: Your public statement can’t use words like ‘misunderstanding’ to gloss over real issue at hand: discrimination. #unitedfortahera”, tweeted Arshe Ahmed, an affiliate of Princeton University’s Muslim Life Programme.
tkhan@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Tips for taking the metro
- set out well ahead of time
- make sure you have at least Dh15 on you Nol card, as there could be big queues for top-up machines
- enter the right cabin. The train may be too busy to move between carriages once you're on
- don't carry too much luggage and tuck it under a seat to make room for fellow passengers
