Shortly before landing on a flight from Chicago to Albuquerque, a Muslim woman was approached by a man she did not know. He had taken issue with her hijab, and saying something along the lines of "Take it off! This is America!" he proceeded to rip the headscarf off, leaving her head exposed.
Gill Parker Payne, 37, of North Carolina has now pled guilty to one count of using force or threat of force to obstruct the unnamed woman in the free exercise of her religious beliefs, the Department of Justice said in a statement. He has not yet been sentenced.
SEE ALSO:Into the fire: Training elite smokejumpers who parachute into wildfiresThe incident, which occurred on a Southwest Airlines flight on December 11, left the woman feeling violated, Payne said in his admission. He also stated he knew the hijab was a religious item of clothing.
"All Americans are entitled to peacefully exercise their religious beliefs free from discrimination and violence," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in the DOJ's statement.
"Using or threatening force against individuals because of their religion is an affront to the fundamental values of this nation."
This is the latest incident in which Muslim people or people suspected of being of Middle Eastern-descent have been removed from or questioned on flights in the U.S. Earlier in May, an Italian University of Pennsylvania economist was questioned on an American Airlines flight after a fellow passenger confused his math equations for a foreign language and suspected him of being a terrorist.
In April, a University of California student was kicked off a Southwest flight after he spoke Arabic on the phone with his uncle, CNN reported.
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