Muslim Family Kicked Off Plane After Passenger Accuses Them of Being ISIS Members

Muslim family kicked off flight after being accused of being in ISIS when passenger allegedly sees Arabic text.

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Complex Original

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Muslim siblings were removed from a plane in London after a passenger accused them of being ISIS members upon allegedly seeing Arabic on their phone. A similar incident in April saw a Muslim student removed from a flight for speaking Arabic.

Sakina Dharas detailed the whole experience in a Facebook post. She and her siblings Maryam and Ali Dharas were on an EasyJet plane ready for a flight from London to Naples, Italy when a flight attendant asked them to follow her without saying why. They were led off the plane, being told that policemen and other men waiting below wanted to speak to them.

"'Do you speak English?'" Sakina recalled one of the officers asking. She responded, "We only speak English, officer. We were born and bred in England." Police then informed them a passenger accused them of being members of ISIS. The passenger claimed to see Arabic text or "praise be to Allah" on their cellphone, the officer said. Sakina explained that there was nothing Arabic-related on their phones, and clarified they were Indian by ethnicity—meaning they wouldn't be speaking Arabic.

From there, the siblings would be questioned by police for an hour about all the places stamped on their passport, their social media accounts, and other information. Sakina noted that her and her sister, who both wear hijabs, were accused while their "white-skinned, green-eyed" brother was not.

At the end of the ordeal Sakina wrote that the officers apologized and said they had to respond to "threats" like this one, adding that the accusers were "frightened."

"What are my rights?" Sakina wrote. "We would only have been allowed back on the plane if there wasn't a shred of doubt on their part, so someone must be the liar here, in which case, why were those passengers not removed for wasting police time, LYING, making false allegations and racial profiling?"

You can read the rest of Sakina’s post below.

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