This past week an Iraqi refugee and UC Berkeley student was removed from a Southwest flight by a police officer after a passenger reported him for speaking Arabic on a phone call.
Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was on the phone and noticed a female passenger looking at him very closely. As he was saying goodbye he said ‘inshallah’ which is a Turkish word borrowed by the Arabic language that translates to ‘if God is willing.’ Right after, he saw the female passenger who was paying very close attention to him get up and all he could think was ‘I hope she doesn't report me.’
She did report him and said that she heard Khairuldeen say ‘Shahid’ which means martyr, a term linked to Islamic terrorism, but he never used that phrase. The story doesn't end there though. After the passenger reported him, a flight attendant who spoke Arabic talked to him, and Khairuldeen said he was coming back from an event with the secretary general of the UN, and his father was assassinated by Sadam Hussein.
Instead of calming the other passenger down and allowing Khairuldeen Makhzoomi to fly with them, the flight attendant removed him from the flight because he didn't like that Khairuldeen said that this situation was Islamophobia perfectly exhibited.
The flight attendant called the police, and there were half a dozen officials and a dog for his investigation, and they even checked his genitals. Necessary? Probably AKA definitely not. He couldn't even take another flight until nine hours later.
This incident depicts part of what is wrong with the world. Yes, it is completely understandable to fear what you don’t know, but reporting someone to the authorities because you didn't understand a word that was said at the end of a phone call?
Come on people we have to be better than that.
Check out the video on the story:
