A man was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight earlier this month after another passenger heard him speaking Arabic and believed that it expressed a threatening message.
Makhzoomi was slated to fly from Los Angeles to Oakland and return to classes on April 6.
According to Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, who was removed from the flight and then interrogated by an FBI officer, he said “inshallah,” a common phrase that means, “if God is willing.” A female passenger had heard “Shahid,” which means martyr, and has a jihadist subtext.
“At the end of my call I said, ‘Inshallah, I will call you,’ and he was like, ‘Call me when you get home.’ I was like ‘Inshallah, Inshallah,’” Makhzoomi elaborated to NBC Bay Area.
“She kept staring at me and I didn’t know what was wrong,” he told the Daily Californian.
“Then I realized what was happening and I just was thinking ‘I hope she’s not reporting me.’”
