Outrage after United Airlines refuses Muslim woman Diet Coke - because can 'could be used as a WEAPON

A Muslim chaplain and director of interfaith engagement at Northwestern University, Ahmad, 31, was traveling Friday from Chicago to Washington for a conference promoting dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youths. She was wearing a headscarf, or hijab. For hygienic reasons, she asked for an unopened can of soda, she said. The flight attendant told her that she could not give her one but then handed an unopened can of beer to a man seated nearby. Ahmad questioned the flight attendant. "We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane," she recalled the flight attendant telling her. I am sitting on a United airlines flight in the air 30,000ft above and I am in tears of humiliation from discrimination.... United spokesman Charles Hobart said a flight attendant had tried several times to accommodate Ahmad's beverage request but that there was a "misunderstanding." Hobart did not elaborate on the so-called misunderstanding but said United officials spoke to the chaplain Saturday afternoon to "get a better understanding" of what happened and to apologize for "for not delivering the service our customers expect when traveling with us." On Facebook, Ahmad wrote that she was "truly disappointed" with the airline's response, which she said "disregarded and trivialized" the discrimination she experienced. "I have not received a written sincere apology for the pain and hurt I experienced as a result of the discrimination and hateful words towards me," she wrote. "This is not about a can of soda."