Man removed from US flight for speaking Arabic

A US university student went from a dinner with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon one day, to being removed from a plane the next for speaking Arabic.
Earlier in April, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi  had been invited to the dinner-and-lecture event in Los Angeles by a friend who works for the World Affairs Council.
Originally from Iraq he came to the US as a refugee six years ago and his research centres on how life can be improved in his home country, The Washington Post reports.

The next day, he had just boarded his Southwest Airlines flight when he called his uncle in Baghdad. His uncle is a political analyst, so Makhzoomi wanted to discuss the dinner and lecture with him.
He was speaking into the phone in Arabic when he noticed that the woman in the seat in front of him was turned staring at him, uncomfortable, he ended his conversation using a customary Arabic phrase meaning "God willing." "I'll call you when I land."
The woman who was staring had left her seat and appeared to have reported him.
Then, a  Southwest employee informed Makhzoomi, "Sir, you need to step out of the plane right now."
Makhzoomi was then led off the plane to a hallway by the boarding gate, where three police officers were awaiting him. He said the Southwest employee appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, and began speaking to him in Arabic, to which he urged her to speak English.
"Why would you speak in Arabic on the airplane?" the employee asked him. "It's dangerous. You know the environment around the airport. You understand what's going on in this country."
Makhzoomi apologized, but said the employee continued to be accusatory, and Makhzoomi said he grew frustrated. Exasperated, the college student said: "This is what Islamophobia has done."
Then according to Makhzoomi, one of the police officers then said into his radio: "Call the FBI."
The plane had gone and Makhzoomi was joined by more police officers, sniffer dogs, and eventually, three FBI agents who then questioned him.
Eventually, seeing he was no threat, he was told to get a refund for his flight from the same employee who took him off it, the Post reported.
Southwest wrote in an email statement to The Post that their "Crew made the decision to investigate a passenger report of potentially threatening comments overheard onboard our aircraft ... While local law enforcement followed up with that passenger in our gate area, the flight departed."