'This is America' air traveler says guilty of yanking Muslim's scarf

[Judi Lynn]

34. NC man pleads guilty to pulling off Muslim woman’s hijab during flight

May 14, 2016 4:37 PM

NC man pleads guilty to pulling off Muslim woman’s hijab during flight

Highlights

Gastonia man awaiting sentencing

Incident took place on a Southwest Airlines flight

Justice Department official: ‘All Americans entitled to peacefully exercise religious beliefs’

By Anne Blythe
[e-mail]

A 37-year-old man from Gastonia pleaded guilty on Friday in New Mexico federal court to using force or threat of force to intentionally obstruct a Muslim woman in the free exercise of her religious beliefs.

Gill Parker Payne, who is awaiting sentencing, was on a Southwest Airlines flight on Dec. 11, when, according to court documents, he confronted a woman wearing a hijab.

Payne had been sitting several rows behind the woman, identified only as K.A., on the flight from Chicago to Albuquerque and did not know her.

During the flight, according to a release from the U.S. Justice Department, Payne stopped in the aisle next to her seat and pulled at the head scarf that Muslim women wear as part of their religious practice. “Take it off! This is America!” federal prosecutors contend Payne said.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article77672737.html#storylink=cpy