Meet the Philly pizza shop owner who was nearly kicked off flight for speaking Arabic

He was speaking Arabic and holding a small, white box – that was enough to raise the suspicion of a fellow passenger on Maher Khalil's fight home last Wednesday.  

"The Southwest employee told us that we could not get on the airplane because one of the passengers was not feeling safe flying with us for speaking Arabic," Khalil, who owns a pizza shop in Philadelphia, tells As It Happens co-host Carol Off.

After gate agents in Chicago tried to stop him from boarding, Khalil called the police to complain. After officers showed up at the gate, Khalil was eventually allowed to get on the plane.

But that wasn't the end of the story.

Khalil was carrying a box of baklava. When he got on the plane, it again raised the suspicion of some other passengers. 

"They were looking at us like we are scary people and terrorists," he says. "They were giving us that look . . . They even asked me, 'What's inside that box?'

"I even opened it and I showed them what's inside and they tried it out."

Khalil is a Palestinian who has lived in Philadelphia for 15 years. In all his time in the U.S., it's the first time he's experienced this kind of discrimination.

He thinks the extreme reaction to the recent attacks in Paris has something to do with what happened to him. "Maybe now they want to judge all the Arab people, thinking they're terrorists." 

Southwest Airlines has issued a statement saying there had been a brief disagreement. Khalil says he's now considering suing the airline.

"I felt terrible, embarrassed. That wasn't fair at all to kick me out of the plane just because I spoke Arabic."