A Muslim social media personality says he was forced to strip naked by airport security and was then berated by airport staff for delaying a flight

16.08.2023 - 12:09 / insider.com

A Muslim social media personality has gone viral on TikTok after he posted a video showing airline staff scolding him for holding up a flight with 300 passengers for 30 minutes, despite claiming he had just been strip-searched by security. 

New York-based @wayoflifesq.official — who did not wish to reveal his real name — has over a million YouTube subscribers and nearly a million followers combined on TikTok and Instagram. He confirmed to Insider via email that he's a school teacher within the New York Department of Education.

He said he had been boarding a United Airlines flight out of Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel to Newark, New Jersey in the TikTok video. 

In the video posted on Sunday — which now has 3.2 million views — he appears to be walking through the airport while in a heated altercation with a gate agent who can be heard saying: "There are 300 passengers waiting for you." 

"Then tell Israel that. Why did they detain me?" — he replies, adding: "Whoever you are, don't you dare speak to me that way, have some respect. 300 people are waiting, it's not my fault."

As the staff member continues to argue with him he can be heard asking: "Did you know they made me get naked?"

She responded: "Okay that's not me. I'm not the security right." 

The woman involved in the altercation was not a United Airlines employee, the airline told Insider. 

Additional text overlaid on the video says: "The plane had been grounded for 30 minutes as Israel performed a body cavity search on me & other Muslims!" 

As he boarded the flight, he apologized to other passengers and explained that airport security detained him for three hours. 

He broke down and started crying toward the end of the video as a flight attendant helped him take his seat and asked him if he needed some water. He said: "I would just like to be treated like a human being for once." 

SQ told Insider via email that after going through a standard security check where his passport and boarding pass were viewed, he was sent to a different line where he was then processed for additional security checks in another location. 

"I went around and asked if everyone was Muslim and of course they were," he said to Insider. "I requested several times to speak to a supervisor but unfortunately it landed on deaf ears. When a supervisor did come they were dismissive and did not explain why I was being detained." 

SQ told Insider that he was "strip searched by two men," which he said flared up "childhood traumas of sexual abuse." 

He said that a United Airlines staff member "was the first person to see how I was doing after such a traumatic event in which I become visually upset due to my inhumane treatment." 

Comments under the TikTok video were