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Two weeks ago, a UC Berkeley student was kicked off a plane – for speaking Arabic, he says.
Khairuldeen Makhzoomi said in an interview with The Times that he was chatting to his uncle on the phone when he noticed a woman seated in the row ahead staring at him. “This is weird,” he thought to himself. After telling his uncle he’d call him back, he hung up with a quick phrase in Arabic: “inshallah.”
A few minutes later, he said, he was asked why he was speaking Arabic on a plane. Next, he was searched by police, and then FBI agents.