Muslim American Airlines Employee Files Suit Over “Terrorist” Claims

Flight attendant claims co-workers called him names leading to discrimination suit.

A Muslim flight attendant will have a date in court with his employer, American Airlines, over claims that his co-workers continually harassed him for his religion. NJ.com reports that the flight attendant, Farkhan Mahmood Shah of New Jersey, is accusing the airline of discrimination after he says he was called “terrorist” by fellow employees.

In the lawsuit, Shah claims he began working for the carrier in 1999, but the harassment began after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Among his allegations, the flight attendant claims that co-workers accused him of being a member of Hezbollah and the Taliban, with repeated accusations of being a “terrorist.” In addition, Shah claims another attendant attempted to convert him to Christianity while working a flight.

According to Shah’s records, he filed a complaint about the issues with his co-workers in 2008, following it straight to American’s New York-based human resources office by 2013. However, the airline did nothing to correct the issue. Instead, Shah insists that he was put on a watch list by the airline and the FBI after making a comment referencing the Sept. 11 incident to another co-worker. The attendant claimed he was visited by the FBI for a second time in 2016 after filing another complaint about the airline with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission.

A spokesperson for American Airlines told NJ.com that the carrier is investigating the claims raised by Shah and that the airline “does not tolerate discrimination of any kind.”

The lawsuit comes as American is doing damage control of employee-related issues. In April, American released former vice president of global marketing Fern Fernandez over a rash of uniform-related issues, while agreeing to give pilots and flight attendants raises to match wages at other legacy carriers.

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