Southwest sees speaking Arabic as a threat - kicks man off flight

hahaha right

 

Speaking on a phone on a plane in another language should not be provocation of anything, ever.

 

Except if someone else understands what you are saying and interprets it as threatening.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/latest-news/article72548387.html

Conversation, not Arabic, led to student’s removal, Southwest Airlines says


Southwest Airlines said Monday that a college student who was speaking Arabic was removed from a flight earlier this month because another passenger believed that he had made “threatening comments.”

The Dallas-based airline issued a new statement on Monday afternoon after The Washington Post published an interview with student, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, who blamed the incident on “Islamophobia.”

In its statement, Southwest said the flight crew responded to a passenger’s concern about comments made by Makhzoomi while boarding a Southwest flight from Los Angeles to Oakland.

“Our Crew responded by following protocol, as required by federal law, to investigate and report to law enforcement agencies any potential threat to civil aviation,” Southwest said in a statement. “It was the content of the passenger’s conversation, not the language used, that prompted the report leading to our investigation.”

Makhzoomi said he believed he was kicked off of Southwest flight 4620 on April 6 because he was speaking Arabic while on his cell phone with his uncle which alarmed the other passenger. He also used a common phrase “Inshallah,” which means “God willing” during the call.

The college senior at University of California at Berkeley, who is also an Iraqi refugee, was questioned by the FBI and then released the same day. He was given a full refund by Southwest and then booked a flight on Delta Air Lines to get back to school.

“I came here to the U.S. because I believed in the values of this country,” Makhzoomi told the Washington Post in an interview. “Islamophobia does not serve to fight terror. It plays right into the Islamic State game of striking fear among us.”

Keep reading for the full statement from Southwest Airlines.

“A Southwest passenger onboard flight 4620 requested that our Crew investigate what were perceived to be threatening comments made by another passenger onboard. Both passengers involved in the situation spoke a shared language, Arabic. Our Crew responded by following protocol, as required by federal law, to investigate and report to law enforcement agencies any potential threat to civil aviation. It was the content of the passenger's conversation, not the language used, that prompted the report leading to our investigation. We provided the passenger an immediate refund of his unused ticket. Federal law enforcement agents became involved and conducted their own investigation.

“We regret any less than positive experience a Customer has onboard our aircraft. We welcome onboard more than a hundred million Customers each year; and we aim safely to transport each, while maintaining the comfort of all. Safety is our always first focus, and our Employees are trained to make decisions to safeguard the security of our Crews and Customers on every flight. We would not remove a passenger from a flight without a collaborative decision rooted in established procedures. Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind. Our Company could not survive if we practiced or believed otherwise. In fact, a cursory view of our workforce, as well as our expansive, multi-cultural Customer base is a reliable indicator that we exalt and appreciate diversity.”

This story was originally published by The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

 

It's just better to stay away from the D&D after a playoff loss.

I'm going to fall asleep to THe Roots, Lana Del Rey and wake up for some radiation.

I'll pretend the burn is Steph's ankle with some tendonitis that keeps him out for the rest of the series.

Wait, we just lost with him dancing on the bench in his Pill Cosby suit

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/vide...99f02c-05e3-11e6-bfed-ef65dff5970d_video.html

The guy has like 4 books on "Islamophobia" on his desk.

The other passenger, who speaks Arabic, says the guy said something about martyrdom during his conversation.

Certainly seems like a possibility that the whole event was deliberately provoked and pre-planned, possibly together with CAIR, so that this guy could get into the media and tell his fable of "Islamophobia".

The whole thing appears at least as fishy as that boy with the clock.

 

So he used martyr in his conversation about the UN that he concluded with a couple of "insha allahs".

 

Sounds like Southwest did the right thing.

DD

 

He's a poli sci major. He has nothing better to do. I'm actually leaning towards him deliberately invoking a response. Just like many Christians in the States like playing the persecution card, many Muslims love it also.

It can't be a coincidence that he was already a vocal anti-islamaphobia activist who is a poli sci(do you even obtain any skills with that major) major.

Also, it seems like the accuser also speaks Arabic which means he isn't some insular redneck. So there might be some merit to his accusation.

 

What you are advocating is giving up freedom and justice. It is unjust that a person should be kicked off a plane for speaking his native tongue. Yet you advocate it.

This goes beyond limiting free speech when a guy can't talk in his native language, yet you advocate the loss of that freedom.

Have you come unwound?

Being prejudice against people is more than political correctness.

::edit:: of course if the guy was actually talking about suspicious subject matter, then it might change the situation provided the person who reported him actually spoke Arabic.

 

If someone reports you for having made "suspicious" or "threatening" remarks while on a plane, you're getting taken off by security, no matter how innocuous your words were or what language you said them in.

Very easy to see why someone speaking Arabic would imagine it played a role in their expulsion, however. It's not uncommon that John/Jane Doe would feel nervous about someone speaking Arabic on an airplane. That's the effect terrorism has.

 

Reportedly, he was told by authorities that it was dangerous to speak Arabic in that environment. So it makes sense that he would think that's a problem.

 

Looks like Sweet Lou got the pity party started a little too early.....

 

That was a Southwest employee, not any sort of law enforcement type, just to be clear.

 

This is what I am leaning towards as well.

The ACCUSER was an Arabic speaker.

He now has an attorney.

He is claiming he hasn't been able to sleep in almost two weeks.

He made the odd comment that he should "learn to speak Chinese so he doesn't have to speak Arabic when on a plane."

There are a lot of odd issues with this case.

 

kids get kicked out of school for eating pop tarts shaped like a gun... deal with it. Everyone now has to sleep in the bed that national security state created. (Unless you make clocks.. then you get a white house invite)

 

That is just dumb. They should have investigated if he didn't pose a risk just let him fly.

 

There's simply no way to do that thoroughly and expeditiously.

It's a sad state of affairs that someone can merely accuse you of something nefarious while on a plane and get you thrown off without much question, but that's life in the terrorism era for you.

 

Why can't we all just get along?

 

Fair enough.

 

Why does it have to be a coincidence? The alternative is that this is something that happens regularly to a lot of people and you just don't hear about it because most people just accept it as a reality of their life. It's the activists and vocal people that are most likely to stand up and make noise about it.

It could be that he provoked it or it could just be that he's the rare person that stood up for himself. We have no idea at this point.

I do find it odd that SW didn't let him fly but Delta did. If SW was in the right, was Delta in the wrong? Why wouldn't SW make it up to him if was determined they made a mistake? Or why would Delta let him fly if it was determned he actually made a threat?