SeenItAll sums it up well.

Pushy mother alert:D

Two comments to add here.

First I subscribe to the "we are not being told everything" side to this story.

Second..I am parent to an autistic child myself, and as much as it pains me to say this, some parents do use their children's condition to ask for and expect absolutely EVERYTHING as though it absolves them from any responsibility with their child at all ie lets go on a flight that does not serve hot food even though I know my daughter needs it (allegedly).

Take a look at when Disney changed their disability access cards due to the dishonesty in the system. The outcry on all sides was incredible...and this was a company trying to HELP those with disabilities.

And in another story:
Muslim chaplain claims discrimination on United flight - CNN.com

The Muslim chaplain story has little to do with United per se

We're talking about a dimwitted, under-skilled flight attendant on an aircraft operated by Shuttle America under a UA flight number and a neighbouring passenger who perhaps one of a troubling minority who thinks that Obama is a Muslim, born in Kenya and most likely a shapeshifter.

United's response is the usual scripted nonsense - ..."accommodate Ahmad's beverage request...". Who talks like that in real life?
United needed to say:
This shouldn't have happened, it's not policy, the flight attendant will be meeting his/her manager, we'll be identifying other passengers who witnessed the incident and if the passenger's claims are corroborated, the passenger who slandered Ms Ahmad will not be flying on United services in the foreseeable future.

I'll go you one step further, WRT the chaplain story.
No-one else on the flight has come forward to say that what she claimed happened did in fact happen, and she has no evidence that it did happen.

We must be cautious about taking the word of one individual over the word of another individual with no evidence whatsoever to confirm the story of either individual.

Now, to put it into perspective, I lived in the USA for many years, dozens, and now live in the UK. I have spent significant time in many different parts of the world, including Africa, Central America, and the US and the UK. I have seen prejudice up close and personal. And I can honestly say that there is more prejudice and discrimination in the US of A than ANYWHERE else I've been, including Apartheid South Africa. However it is more covert in the USA than anywhere else.

@darkroomsource Fully agree. You only have to look back to shortly post 9/1, with Muslims being refused service at McDs et al by folk with about the same IQ as the ambient temperature. In Celcius.

Same thing happened here...

Sounds about right.

My wife is Muslim (and also a pilot) and has (luckily) never had an issue in Europe.

It's a sad world this is becoming, but my feeling is that noone should be discriminated against on the basis of (perceived) religion, as there's not a safety issue here.