Airline passenger: Don’t speak Arabic on Southsest Airlines

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After meeting the UN Secretary General in New York, a proud 26-year-old UC Berkeley Student by the name of Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was removed from a Southwest Airlines aircraft after having a private p

After meeting the UN Secretary General in New York, a proud 26-year-old UC Berkeley Student by the name of Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was removed from a Southwest Airlines aircraft after having a private phone conversation in Arabic.

As summarized by Slatest, the outcome is: If you speak Arabic, best keep your mouth shut when youโ€™re boarding a plane in the United States. That seems to be the lesson from the humiliating experience this Berkeley senior lived through when he was supposed to fly from Los Angeles to Oakand earlier this month.

Makhzoomi, an Iraqi refugee, was speaking to his uncle in Baghdad before the plane took off. And it seems the common Arabic expression โ€œinshallah,โ€ meaning โ€œGod willing,โ€ set off alarm bells inside the head of a passenger. Makhzoomi noticed the female passenger was staring at him when he hung up and then she got up and left her seat.


โ€œShe kept staring at me and I didnโ€™t know what was wrong,โ€ he told the Daily Californian, a student-run newspaper at UC Berkeley. โ€œThen I realized what was happening, and I just was thinking โ€˜I hope sheโ€™s not reporting me.โ€™โ€ Makhzoomi was quickly pulled off the plane. The passenger apparently said she had heard the word โ€œshahid,โ€ which means martyr. Makhzoomi denied that was the case.

โ€œI told them, โ€˜This is what Islamophobia looks like,โ€™โ€ he told the San Francisco Chronicle. โ€œAnd thatโ€™s when they said I could not get on the plane, and they called the FBI.โ€

By the time the student was taken back to the gate, there were police dogs and security officers waiting for him. Makhzoomi says authorities repeatedly questioned him, and one officer even allegedly publicly searched his genital area. โ€œThat is when I couldnโ€™t handle it, and my eyes began to water,โ€ he said. โ€œThe way they searched me and the dogs, the officers, people were watching me, and the humiliation made me so afraid.โ€ Hours later, authorities allowed him to leave, but Southwest refused to fly him and refunded his ticket.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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