![\"Khairuldeen](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Khairuldeen-Makhzoomi-235x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nOn April 6th, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, an Iraqi refugee and senior at the University of California Berkeley, was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight. This past wekend, the story was about how he was booted merely because he was speaking in his native Arabic tongue and how the racist fear-mongers on the flight were frightened by that fact. He used the incident to demonstrate how he has been the target of hatred because of his swarthy looks. From an earlier Dallas News article<\/a>;<\/p>\n \u201cI said to him, \u2018This is what Islamophobia got this country into,\u2019 and that made him so angry. That is when he told me I could not go back on the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n Zahra Billoo, 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are concerned that Muslims are facing more and more scrutiny and baseless harassment when they are attempting to travel,\u201d Billoo said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, today we find out that the person who reported the youngster to the aircrew also spoke Arabic, and it was the content of the conversation, not the fact that it was in Arabic that concerned the passenger, according to the Dallas News<\/a>;<\/p>\n One new detail revealed in the statement is that the woman who overheard Makhzoomi\u2019s comments, which came during a phone conversation with his uncle, also spoke Arabic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the content of the passenger\u2019s conversation, not the language used, that prompted the report leading to our investigation,\u201d Southwest said in its statement. \u201cOnce the report was made, an Arabic-speaking Southwest Manager at LAX participated in the decision to request the passenger leave the aircraft and continue the conversation in the gate area.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The statement from Southwest is at the second link.<\/p>\n Thanks to David for the links.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"