‘Muslim Terrorist’ Yelled On 9/11; Group Seeks Hate Crime Charge

DETROIT, MI — A Muslim woman said she was berated with racial slurs, including being called a “Muslim terrorist,” while intervening in a dispute between two others on a Detroit-bound Spirit Airlines plane on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Now, a Muslim rights group is calling for the woman who uttered the slur, who is white, to be charged with a hate crime. As of Monday, she has only been cited with assault and disorderly conduct, the Wayne County Airport Authority said in a statement to Patch, adding that the Muslim woman identified by the Council of American-Islamic Relations as Aicha Toure was assaulted.

Toure is a “visibly Muslim woman” who wears an Islamic headscarf, CAIR said in a news release. The group said Toure asked the white woman to stop cursing at an older woman who looked to be of South Asian descent and then was called a "Muslim terrorist" and was struck by the woman's fist.

CAIR referenced Michigan’s Ethnic Intimidation Statute, which makes it a felony to harass or assault someone because of their religion or race, as reason for calling for the hate crime charge to come from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.

“We call for the suspect who allegedly spewed anti-Muslim rhetoric during the assault to be charged to the full extent of the law,” CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid said. “Swift arrests along with strong prosecutions must be instituted to deter future acts of anti-Muslim hate crimes.”

The airport authority did not release the cited woman’s name.

The accused is now banned from Spirit Airlines flights, the airline said in a statement to The Detroit Free Press. The statement said it does not “tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind.”