Alwaght- In ongoing incidents of Islamophobia, a United States airline has ejected a Muslim passenger who was speaking in Arabic.
Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, says he was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight after a fellow passenger became alarmed that he was speaking Arabic.
Makhzoomi, said he was making a call to his uncle while waiting for his plane to take off from Los Angeles International Airport earlier this month. He wanted to tell him about a speech he had attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“I was very excited about the event, so I called my uncle to tell him about it,” the 26-year-old told The New York Times. Makhzoomi told his uncle that he had asked a question about ISIS at the event, and used the phrase “inshallah” (God willing) at the end of the conversation.
He said the woman sitting in front of him on the plane then began staring at him. “That is when I thought, 'Oh, I hope she is not reporting me’,” he said.
An Arabic-speaking Southwest employee then reportedly approached Makhzoomi, escorted him off the plane, and asked him why he had been speaking Arabic. Makhzoomi responded by saying “this is what Islamophobia got this country into.” At that point, the Southwest employee reportedly became angry, and Makhzoomi was told he could not reboard the plane, which was bound for Oakland, California.
Southwest Airlines said it has not received a direct complaint from Makhzoomi, and that he has not responded to several attempts to reach him.
The airline said it cannot give specific comments on the situation before talking to Makhzoomi, but said it regrets any less-than-positive experience by a customer and that it “neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.” However, it stated that its primary focus is on safety, adding that its crew members followed protocol.
Three FBI agents called by airport security took Mr Makhzoomi to private room for questioning. They told him that the Arabic-speaking employee had been offended by his insinuation of anti-Muslim bias.
The FBI questioned Mr Makhzoomi about his family, particularly his father, Khalid Makhzoom – a former Iraqi diplomat who had been sent to Abu Ghraib prison by Saddam Hussein, and was later killed by the regime.
Concern from the Council on American-Islamic Relations has arisen over the treatment of Muslims and Arabic-speaking people by Southwest Airlines. Last week, a Muslim woman was removed from a Chicago flight after a flight attendant felt alarmed by her headscarf.
“We are concerned that Muslims are facing more and more scrutiny and baseless harassment when they are attempting to travel,” Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco CAIR office, said in a statement, adding that there have been six reported instances when Muslims have been removed from flights for no apparent reason.
