A student talking to a relative in Arabic on the phone was pulled of a Southwest Airlines flight earlier this month.
Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a 26-year-old senior at the University of California-Berkeley, was taken off a flight heading to Oakland from Los Angeles International Airport on April 6. Makhzoomi is an Iraqi refugee who came to the United States in 2010 with his family.
Recommended Stories
According to a report, Makhzoomi had called his uncle in Baghdad to tell him about an event he had just attended where he saw United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speak.
A nearby passenger reported Makhzoomi to the crew when she said she heard him making “potentially threatening comments,” the airline said in a statement.
Then, a Southwest Airline employee asked Makhzoomi why he was speaking Arabic before escorting him off the plane. He was then questioned by the FBI in a private room until they determined no further action was necessary and allowed him to return to the terminal.
Makhzoomi booked a new flight on Delta Air Lines and arrived in Oakland roughly eight hours after he originally planned.
“We regret any less than a positive experience a customer has onboard our aircraft,” Southwest said in a statement to The New York Times. “Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said there have been at least six cases of Muslims being pulled off flights so far this year.
“My family and I have been through a lot, and this is just another one of the experiences I have had,” Makhzoomi 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.”
