Yes I' m a British born Muslim woman (never really worn a hijab thou) who was really harassed a few years back whilst heading off to Usa on holiday to EWR although on this occasion as I was working for the last few months in Brussels, Belgium I decided to fly out & back from there instead of from the UK - I'm always late for everything and on this occasion by exception I was determined to be early and take a relaxed trip thru the airport picking up some Leonidas chocolates too fron their airside branch mmmm! This all took place in 2006 well before any British Muslims being involved in any incidents at all. The staff at Brussels were not even Belgian or EU born that were screening me. I felt like I should be checking their immigration status at least!
I actually work in IT and do a few government contracts occasionally so hold a good clean record all round myself so was really shocked to find myself totally 'randomly selected' to which I was like yeh right well of course it is! But that was truly minor & all my luggage & I got screened and turned over completely - The worse part being that I wasn't allowed to rejoin passengers but escorted all the way to the gate & prevented from stopping to pick up chocolates even! My crime must have been truly extreme as on this occasion the 2 guys took me off to somewhere without any other passengers or staff around - then embarrassed me more going thru my neatly packed underwired smalls. A barrage of questions as to why I was in Brussels etc. - I had a flat there so told them I am English but I live there so that got them more confused as my French isn't great so they wondered why. I explained I am working there long term in an English speaking role hence the holiday - eventually one of the guys apologised lots & decided it was time to get me on board. Putting me all the way to the gate in person & refusing to allow me to stop to pick chocolates even - most set over this
. But then I was not taken from the public route but the crew one instead which left me most bewildered of all. The other passengers stated at me some wondering of my crime as I did too before I resumed into my normal holiday flight.
Nowadays I'm back to being late for everything ... i have flown to Usa since & been checked a few more times but never like in Brussels again although I did complain that they were harassing me every time & it was getting too much before it seemed to stop some. I switched my preferred airline from United thou.. to British Airways!