College Student Is Removed From Flight After Speaking Arabic on Plane

[Kanzler]

A college student who came to the United States as an Iraqi refugee was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight in California earlier this month after another passenger became alarmed when she heard him speaking Arabic.

The student, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, was taken off a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Oakland on April 6 after he called an uncle in Baghdad to tell him about an event he attended that included a speech by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"I was very excited about the event so I called my uncle to tell him about it," he said.

He told his uncle about the chicken dinner they were served and the moment when he got to stand up and ask the secretary general a question about the Islamic State, he said. But the conversation seemed troubling to a nearby passenger, who told the crew she overheard him making "potentially threatening comments," the airline said in a statement.

Mr. Makhzoomi, 26, knew something was wrong as soon as he finished his phone call and saw that a woman sitting in front of him had turned around in her seat to stare at him, he said. She headed for the airplane door soon after he told his uncle that he would call again when he landed, and qualified it with a common phrase in Arabic, "inshallah," meaning "god willing."

"That is when I thought, 'Oh, I hope she is not reporting me,' because it was so weird," Mr. Makhzoomi said.

That is exactly what happened. An Arabic-speaking Southwest Airlines employee of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent came to his seat and escorted him off the plane a few minutes after his call ended, he said. The man introduced himself in Arabic and then switched to English to ask, "Why were you speaking Arabic in the plane?"

Mr. Makhzoomi said he was afraid, and that the employee spoke to him "like I was an animal."

"I said to him, 'This is what Islamophobia got this country into,' and that made him so angry. That is when he told me I could not go back on the plane."

Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there had been at least six cases of Muslims being pulled off flights so far this year. The conduct of Southwest Airlines was of particular concern, she said, after another Muslim passenger was removed from a flight in Chicago last week.

"We are concerned that Muslims are facing more and more scrutiny and baseless harassment when they are attempting to travel," Ms. Billoo said.

Brandy King, a spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said the company was unable to comment on the conduct of individual employees. Efforts on Saturday to contact the employee in Los Angeles, whose name was provided by Mr. Makhzoomi, were unsuccessful.

"We regret any less than positive experience a customer has onboard our aircraft," the company said in a statement. "Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind."

Law enforcement officials arrived shortly after Mr. Makhzoomi accused the airline employee of anti-Muslim bias, he said. He was brought into the terminal and searched in front of a crowd of onlookers while half a dozen police officers, including one with a dog, stood watch.

Three agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived and brought him into a private room where they questioned him, he said. They asked about his mother, who lives with him and his younger brother in Oakland. They also asked about his father, Khalid Makhzoomi, a former Iraqi diplomat who was jailed in Abu Ghraib prison by Saddam Hussein and later killed by the dictator's regime, according to Mr. Makhzoomi. His family came to the United States in 2010.

Mr. Makhzoomi said an F.B.I. agent told him the Southwest Airlines employee who was upset by the allegation of anti-Muslim bias said a passenger reported hearing him talk about martyrdom in Arabic, using a phrase often associated with jihadists. He denied the charge and was allowed to return to the terminal, he said, where the same Arabic-speaking employee refunded his ticket.

A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Los Angeles, Ari Dekofsky, confirmed that agents responded to the airport that day but had found there to be no threat. "We determined that no further action was necessary," she said on Saturday.

Mr. Makhzoomi was able to book a new flight on Delta Air Lines and arrived in Oakland eight hours after he originally planned. He said he has no plans to pursue legal action against Southwest Airlines but he does want the company to apologize for the way its employees treated him.

"My family and I have been through a lot and this is just another one of the experiences I have had," he said. "Human dignity is the most valuable thing in the world, not money. If they apologized, maybe it would teach them to treat people equally."

Sounds like a joke, but it isn't. Do you see Islamophobia as becoming less or more of a problem?

Thoughts?

 

[killer-curry]

Firstly, as a person who live in a world of multirace, this is a problem and it will grow bigger. People are more fear to Islamic people, because they afraid of terrorist attacks that happen a lot recently.

For me, this is not a joke, it is very common news for these kind of islamophobia. This kind of prejudice must be removed because it will soon destroy the relationship between People. They are not terrorist, they are just innonencent people.

 

[Her]

Funny how stories like these are happening so frequently they're almost commonplace, and yet people still want to deny the pervasiveness of Islamophobia, let alone its very existence.

 

[Midnight shadow]

It saddens me to hear things like this still happen, and once again it all comes down to the ignorance of certain people who jump to ridiculous conclusions based on something they know nothing about. Don't they realise that it's these types of events that prompt terrorist action in the first place?

 

[gimmepie]

It saddens me to hear things like this still happen, and once again it all comes down to the ignorance of certain people who jump to ridiculous conclusions based on something they know nothing about. Don't they realise that it's these types of events that prompt terrorist action in the first place?

So much this. The fact that people automatically associate a religion or race with terrorism or whatever is just stupid. Simple statistics say that the vast majority of Arabic or Islamic people are not terrorists and probably have never even met a member of ISIS or the Taliban. Islamophobic reactions just add more fuel to the fire and give the actual terrorists a recruiting platform. If people want the terrorist attacks to stop, they have to stop showing the world that they're working. You want less terror? Treat each other as equals and accept everyone.

I find the continued growth of this sort of paranoia, both in the US and in my own country, extremely disturbing and disheartening and I'm not even a Muslim or an Arab. I can scarcely imagine how people who actually fit society's warped idea of a terrorist's profile feel.

 

[Thepokefansophia]

I am not suprised at all by this.
Its very common to hear people in my community say distasteful things about Muslims and other people from other cultures such as romanians, polish people. Minority groups such as the EDL are spreading more hatred. I tried reasoning with those who hate muslims but gave me some incoherent response.
I had to laugh the other day as a girl thought that China and Japan were the same country.
But then again I suppose people are frightened because of what has been happening lately such as the Brussels bombing, Paris and the murder of Lee Rigby. Nevertheless I still dont understand why people have to stereotype them all as this big evil group. I`ve met such lovely and generous muslims.

 

[Arsenic]

It saddens me to hear things like this still happen, and once again it all comes down to the ignorance of certain people who jump to ridiculous conclusions based on something they know nothing about. Don't they realize that it's these types of events that prompt terrorist action in the first place?

I mean, that last part goes both ways. Terrorists also do actions to cause more of this, which spurs up recruits.

It's a vicious cycle.

Maybe it's just me but it seemed like a lot less happened on this front when we had Iraq locked down...

 

[RegalSin]

It is called racism. Gotta make babies so these idiots will shut up.

 

[Midnight shadow]

I mean, that last part goes both ways. Terrorists also do actions to cause more of this, which spurs up recruits.

It's a vicious cycle.

Maybe it's just me but it seemed like a lot less happened on this front when we had Iraq locked down...

It does, and it's hard to tell who struck first, although at this point it doesn't really matter. Right now we are stuck in a self-destructive spiral that could lead to another world war if we aren't careful. The problem is, how to break the pattern. It doesn't help that neither side seems willing to negotiate or even find out why the other side resents the other.

 

[RegalSin]

We are not in a self destructive spiral. We are in a world were if one person gets kicked off the plane then 90% of the passengers should also follow that person as well. If all of those people on the plane had told that one person to STFU, then nobody would have gotten kicked off the plane.

This is just racist people attempting to use whatever little form of racism they could get away with.

I bet the person is some kind of ugly slave as well

 

[zakisrage]

Here in Australia, anti-Muslim attitudes are pretty widespread, especially among the older generations. The worst offenders are the people who are considered "bogan", since the majority of bogans I've encountered hate Muslims. Lebanese Muslims are especially despised because of the Sydney gang rapes and the Cronulla riots. Last week when I was on the bus home from work a young woman called me a "****ing Lebo" and asked if I was offended by her short skirt. She then rambled about Muslim intolerance while I tuned out to my iPod. (I told her to get a life.)

The plane incident doesn't surprise me. Ever since 9/11, people have been seeing us Muslims as a threat whenever we're on planes and this kind of thing has happened before. There's a reason why the phrase "flying while Muslim" exists. I think it's so unfair that people remove Muslims from planes just because of their religion.

 

[RegalSin]

Also checkout Youtube with TYT getting booted of the plane by a pilot. He was never given his money back.

You know how we are going to fight back? By avoiding spending any money. Only money I spend nowadays is on sex and if it not sex ( spouse ) then is my health, otherwise is my family. That is the reality with this world.

If that barbie doll on the bus was so money fed then she wouldn't have anything to say at all.

 

[Kanzler]

and asked if I was offended by her short skirt. She then rambled about Muslim intolerance while I tuned out to my iPod. (I told her to get a life.)

Maybe she was hitting on you in a roundabout way :P

I think Islamophobia will become worse in the coming years. ISIS seems to be replacing al-Qaeda as the most prominent Islamic terrorism organization staging mass murders in the West. I don't think Islamophobia will go away, regardless of how much media attention and education it gets, as long as these terrorist attacks continue.

 

[Midnight shadow]

Maybe she was hitting on you in a roundabout way :P

I think Islamophobia will become worse in the coming years. ISIS seems to be replacing al-Qaeda as the most prominent Islamic terrorism organization staging mass murders in the West. I don't think Islamophobia will go away, regardless of how much media attention and education it gets, as long as these terrorist attacks continue.

What I don't understand is the people who think that all Muslims are extremists and terrorists, or at least treat them that way because they need a scapegoat for all their problems. It's so backwards thinking and illogical. For all our talk of being sophisticated and so much more civilized than animals, we sure don't act like it.

 

[Electricbluewolf]

What I don't understand is the people who think that all Muslims are extremists and terrorists, or at least treat them that way because they need a scapegoat for all their problems. It's so backwards thinking and illogical. For all our talk of being sophisticated and so much more civilized than animals, we sure don't act like it.

One word. Media.

They promote ISIS. They do their dirty work. When ISIS releases a new video of the horrific beheadings, the media go absolutely mad. If they did not show it as prime time news ISIS wouldn't nearly be as effective as they thrive on terror.
They also thrive on discrimination towards Muslims. I know not all of ISIS members are Muslims, but it's a vicious circle-a video of a beheading>public outcry and look for a closer to home target>ISIS mainly has Muslim people>oh yes it must be Muslims who organise this>Muslims are persecuted against>they get frustrated>especially younger members seeing they're siblings or mum/dad get spat on in streets>what can they do about it> ISIS brainwashing into them thinking fighting with them will help>more beheading videos>the cycle repeats.

I think it's coming more common, especially here in the UK with flood of immigration, of anyone who doesn't speak English to be suspect. I've seen people move away from people speaking a different language (or one they can't recognise, i.e. French). However the Media just love to feed and find someone to blame-even Trump with "I saw Muslims dance on rooftops on 9/11" People believe it.
Can you imagine the horror and discrimination just because you believe in something else? I have many Muslim friends, and some can't even leave their houses because of fear of what will happen.

The was a video not long ago of a Muslim women in I think Seattle who did a stall of "Ask a Muslim" because most people just see what they see on telly and think it's true. Imagine having to justify yourself to utter strangers just because Fox news said "these might be bad people"