Muslim woman victim of racism by the United Airline, Islamophobia is real in the US

United Airlines has come under fire after a Muslim passenger was allegedly refused an unopened can of soda because she might "use it as a weapon."

Initially as a regular flight for Tahera Ahmad, representatives of the Muslim community at Northwestern University, Chicago, USA. The veiled woman sitting calm in United Airlines flight at an altitude of 30,000 feet above the ground. However, Tahera tranquility disturbed by the incident that offending her convictions, she has accused United of "Islamophobia" after an encounter with a flight attendant Friday that left her in tears.

Ahmad wrote in a Facebook post that she asked for an unopened can of Diet Coke during beverage service on her flight. When she was brought an open can, she requested a new beverage for sanitary reasons but was told, "I'm sorry I just can't give you an unopened can so no diet coke for you."

A man sitting near her was later brought an unopened beer, and Ahmad, who wears a hijab in her Facebook profile photo, asked the flight attendant again why she wasn't able to have a similar can.

"She said, 'We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a WEAPON on the plane,'" Ahmad wrote.

Ahmed also wrote that after the encounter, she asked her fellow passengers if the experience was discriminatory, but no one responded aside from one man who said, "You Moslem, you need to shut the f** up ... yes you know you would use it as a WEAPON so shut the f**k up."

Ahmad's story has quickly spread on social media, with some people adopting the hashtag #UnitedForTahera, calling for a boycott of the airline. Despite the statement from the airline, Ahmed wrote on Twitter that she has yet to receive a "sincere apology" from United and is "disappointed at [the] dismissal."

Ahmad told the Chicago Sun-Times she's been targeted because of her hijab before. She said she's been spat on and had the covering ripped off, but the airplane incident was particularly troubling because she was “publicly targeted as a threat to people.”

Ms Ahmad's account last night of her experience has been shared by thousands of people on Facebook and Twitter.

They've used the hashtag #UnitedForTahera, accused the airline of Islamophobia and racism at 30,000ft and told others to boycott it.

Mohammad Alauddin ‏wrote: "This is disrespectful. We are Muslims, We aren't terrorists. Everybody should be #unitedfortahera".

Zohal Alizai ‏wrote: "Never going to book a flight from united airlines again #unitedfortahera".

Sagal Ashour added: "Glad I'm using British airways to travel to New York otherwise I would change my ticket. Unacceptable treatment of Muslims #unitedfortahera".

A Beautiful Mind Mathematician Nobel laureate John Nash killed in car crash

The Princeton math genius whose life story was the subject of the film “A Beautiful Mind” died Saturday in a crash on the New Jersey Turnpike.

John Forbes Nash Jr. was killed in the 4:30 p.m. crash, along with his wife of nearly 60 years, state police said Sunday.

The crash happened in the southbound inner lanes of the highway.

Nash was 86. Alicia Nash was 82.

The couple were in a taxi that crashed with another vehicle.

Actor Russell Crowe, who played Nash in the film, sent his condolences via a tweet Sunday.

The paper said the driver of the taxi, a Ford Crown Victoria, lost control as he tried to pass a Chrysler in the center lane and crashed into a guard rail.

The Nashes were ejected from the car, a state police spokesman told the Newark Star-Ledger.

The person in the Chrysler was transported to a hospital and was expected to survive.

Known as brilliant and eccentric, Nash was associated with Princeton University for many years, most recently serving as a senior research mathematician. He won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1994 for his work in game theory, which offered insight into the dynamics of human rivalry. It is considered one of the most influential ideas of the 20th century.

On May 19, Nash was in Oslo where he received the Abel Prize, a prestigious international math award. The King of Norway presented the award to Nash and a co-recipient, fellow math whiz, Louis Nirenberg.

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters called the two "mathematical giants of the 20th century" who made breakthroughs that have become "essential tools for the study of nonlinear partial differential equations.

Nirenberg said he'd chatted with the couple for an hour at the airport in Newark before they'd gotten a cab. Nirenberg said Nash was a truly great mathematician and "a kind of genius."

"We were all so happy together," Nirenberg said. "It seemed like a dream."

"We are stunned and saddened by news of the untimely passing of John Nash and his wife and great champion, Alicia," Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement Sunday. "Both of them were very special members of the Princeton University community. John's remarkable achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists who were influenced by his brilliant, groundbreaking work in game theory, and the story of his life with Alicia moved millions of readers and moviegoers who marveled at their courage in the face of daunting challenges."

John David Stier, Nash's son with his first wife, said he learned of the death Sunday morning. "It's very upsetting," he said.

In an autobiography written for The Nobel Foundation Web site, Nash said delusions caused him to resign as a faculty member at M.I.T. He also spent several months in New Jersey hospitals on an involuntary basis.

However, Nash's schizophrenia diminished through the 1970s and 1980s as he "gradually began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking," he wrote.

The 2001 film "A Beautiful Mind" won four Oscars, including best picture and best director, and generated interest in John Nash's life story. The movie was based on an unauthorized biography by Sylvia Nasar, who wrote that Nash's contemporaries found him "immensely strange" and "slightly cold, a bit superior, somewhat secretive."

Much of his demeanor likely stemmed from mental illness, which began emerging in 1959 when Alicia was pregnant with a son. The film, though, did not mention Nash older son or to the years that he and Alicia spent living together after divorcing. The couple split in 1963, then resumed living together several years later and finally remarried in 2001.

Born in Bluefield, W. Va., to an electrical engineer and a housewife, Nash had read the classic "Men of Mathematics" by E.T. Bell by the time he was in high school. He planned to follow in his father's footsteps and studied for three years at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh (now Carnegie Mellon University), but instead developed a passion for mathematics.

He then went to Princeton, where he worked on his equilibrium theory and, in 1950, received his doctorate with a dissertation on non-cooperative games. The thesis contained the definition and properties of what would later be called the Nash equilibrium.

Nash then taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for several years and held a research post at Brandeis University before eventually returning to Princeton.

The Associated Press 

Charges filed against 170 Bikers gang members in Waco TX

About 170 members of rival motorcycle gangs were charged with engaging in organized crime Monday, a day after a shootout at a Texas restaurant that killed nine people and wounded 18.

The crowd of suspects was so large that authorities opened a convention center to hold them all before they were arrested, police said.

Sunday's melee at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco drew a broad police response that included placing officers atop buildings and highway overpasses to watch for other bikers rushing to the scene to retaliate.

Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said that authorities had received threats from biker groups against law enforcement "throughout the night" after the shooting and that authorities stood ready to confront any more violence. He told The Dallas Morning News a retaliatory threat remained high on Monday.

McLennan County Justice of the Peace W.H. Peterson set bond at $1 million for each suspect. He defended the high amount, citing the violence that quickly unfolded in a shopping market busy with a lunchtime crowd.

"We have nine people dead, because these people wanted to come down and what? Drink? Party?" Peterson said. "I thought it was appropriate."

Peterson also performed inquests on the nine dead bikers but declined to identify them pending notification of family. Peterson says all nine were from Texas.

Police acknowledged firing on armed bikers, but it was unclear how many of the dead were shot by gang members and how many were shot by officers.

Swanton said the Waco Convention Center was used to hold the suspects temporarily as police rushed to secure many parts of the city amid reports of rival bikers going elsewhere to continue the fight. Those at the convention center were later taken to jail.

It's too early to determine how many motorcycle gang members will face murder charges, Swanton said.

Five gangs had gathered at the restaurant as part of a meeting to settle differences over turf and recruitment. Prior meetings had been held at the restaurant, and managers there had dismissed police concerns over the gatherings, he said.

"They were not here to drink and eat barbecue," Swanton said. "They came here with violence in mind."

Twin Peaks — a national chain that features waitresses in revealing uniforms — on Monday revoked the franchise rights to the restaurant, which opened in August.

Company spokesman Rick Van Warner said in a statement that the management team chose to ignore warnings and advice from the company, and did not establish the "high security standards" that the company requires.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission on Monday issued a seven-day suspension of the restaurant's liquor license, but owners had the option of reopening to serve meals.

Police and the restaurant operators were aware of Sunday's meeting in advance, and 18 Waco officers in addition to state troopers were outside the restaurant when the fight began, Swanton said.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara, whose office is involved in the investigation, said the nine dead were members of the Bandidos and Cossacks. However, Swanton has repeatedly declined to identify which gangs were involved in a fight that began with punches then grew to include chains, knives and then guns.

"I am not about to give them the respect of mentioning their names," Swanton said.

Many men detained in the hours after the shooting were seen wearing leather vests that read Bandidos or Cossacks.

More than 100 motorcycles were in the parking lots around the restaurant Monday, along with an additional 50 to 75 vehicles that probably belong to gang members, Swanton said. Authorities were having them towed from the scene, 95 miles south of Dallas.

Officials stopped and questioned motorcycle riders. Agents from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting local and state authorities.

In a 2014 gang-threat assessment, the Texas Department of Public Safety classified the Bandidos as a "Tier 2" threat, the second highest. Other groups in that tier included the Bloods, Crips and Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

The Bandidos, formed in the 1960s, are involved in trafficking cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Bandidos conduct their activities as covertly as possible to avoid publicity, according to the DPS assessment. Members aren't covert, however, about making their presence known by wearing their colors and insignia, and riding in large groups.

The Texas assessment does not mention the Cossacks.

In a bulletin issued May 1, the Texas Joint Information Center run by the DPS warned of increasing violence between the Bandidos and Cossacks. Dallas TV station WFAA obtained the bulletin and reported that it said the conflict could stem from Cossacks refusing to pay Bandidos dues for operating in Texas and for wearing a Texas patch on their vests without the Bandidos' approval.

DPS spokesman Tom Vinger declined to comment on the authenticity of the bulletin, citing agency policy.

The bulletin also outlined several recent incidents between the two groups, including about 10 Cossacks forcing a Bandido to pull over along Interstate 35 near Waco in March and attacking him with "chains, batons and metal pipes before stealing his motorcycle," WFAA reported.

That same day, a group of Bandidos confronted a Cossack member fueling up at a truck stop in Palo Pinto County, west of Fort Worth, the bulletin said. When the Cossack member refused to remove the Texas patch from his vest, the Bandidos hit him in the head with a hammer and stole the vest.

Associated Press

Biker Gangs threatened revenge against Texas Police after Waco shootout

Texas police asked rival motorcycle gangs on Tuesday to put aside their differences after a weekend brawl at a Waco restaurant that left nine people dead and 18 injured, calling for a halt to the carnage and threats of revenge attacks.

“There has been enough tragedy and there has been enough bloodshed in Waco, Texas. We would appreciate there not being any more," Police Sergeant Patrick Swanton told a news briefing.

He added that threats for reprisal against police from motorcycle gangs have "toned down" but are still a worry for law enforcement officials, who arrested 170 people following Sunday's brawl at the Twin Peaks Sports Bar and Grill in the central Texas city.

Of the 18 injured, seven remain in the hospital and all are in stable condition. Almost all of those involved in the deadly brawl are not from the Waco area, Swanton said.

Those arrested were being held on bail of $1 million each in separate parts of a county jail to prevent an outbreak of violence, county officials said.

They face organized crime charges relating to capital murder. Charges directly relating to the violence will likely come after an investigation of the bullet-riddled crime scene where gang member attacked each other with guns, knives, clubs, brass knuckles and chains.

Three of those arrested were released from jail when their bond was mistakenly reduced to $50,000, a county judge said.

McLennan County Judge Ralph Strother told Reuters a warrant for their arrest has been issued that also sought to have their bonds restored to $1 million.

A coalition of bikers rented out a patio of Twin Peaks, known for scantily clad waitresses serving mugs of beer, for a Sunday meeting that turned sour when a rival gang showed up, police said.

A dispute over a parking space or a gang member's foot being run over may have sparked the brawl that ended with a gunfight between bikers and nearly two dozen police who had taken positions outside the restaurant in anticipation of violence.

The names of the dead have not been released and many of those being held are not cooperating with investigators.

"Some of the players in this are not being honest," Swanton said.

Among the gangs involved in the shooting were the Bandidos, which the U.S. Justice Department says has between 2,000 to 2,500 members in the United States and 13 other countries. It is one of the biggest motorcycle gangs and a rival to the better-known Hells Angels.

The Bandidos have been battling with a rival gang, the Cossacks, for control in the state, which has been seen as Bandidos territory, an expert on outlaw motorcycle gangs said.

"The Bandidos... think they own Texas," said police officer Steve Cook, who heads the Midwest Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators Association.

"They say 'This is our territory and this is it' and that's the way they leave it," he said.

Shootout Between Rival Biker Gangs At Texas Marketplace, 9 dead, 18 injured

Nine people were killed when a dispute broke out among motorcycle gangs at a bar in Waco, Texas, on Sunday (17/5). Clashes and shootout to ravage the parking lot outside the bar.

This feud lasted at Twin Peaks Sports Bar and Grill in the shopping center in central Texas, nine killed, several others injured.

Waco area police, revealed clashes involving at least three motorcycle gangs, and began to occur in the afternoon. The clashes quickly turned into a fight which uses a number of sharp weapons such as knives and chains, as well as firearms.

In a press conference aired a television station, police explained that when a motorcycle gang shootout begins, the officer began to rush into the location to try to secure the situation. Some members of the gang then tried to dispose of their weapons.

When the shootout ended, seen a number of dead lay down in the parking area. Police said the death toll could possibly be increased.

"The clashes among motorcycle gangs is very dangerous. Many innocent people could get hurt today," police said, quoted by Reuters on Monday (18/5).

After eight people were confirmed dead at the scene, the victim later died at a local hospital. All the victims were motorcyclists, and no police officers were injured.

Nevertheless, the police can not confirm whether there victims who died from been shot by the police.

Waco police stated that the Twin Peaks is one bar that could potentially lead to fighting between motorcycle gangs. The bar manager until now could not be reached for comment.