Still trying to get over why someone thought this was appropriate given the trainee's religion and country of residence.
From the article it sounded like the instructor was civil service and not military, or at least not anymore.
There are tons of great civil service members in the student aviator pipelines who do fantastic work and are very supportive and personable. Then there are those who are some of the rudest, most callous and tone deaf individuals I have ever interacted with, and I spent more than a few years working in retail/customer service.
Point being I am not surprised at all that a civilian instructor behaved that way and quite frankly I've seen worse.