'I'll Be Watching You:' Muslim Man Kicked Off US Flight

A Muslim man is looking for recourse after a flight attendant on an American Airlines flight announced his name and seat number to the plane saying she was “watching” him and ultimately kicked him off the flight.

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Mohamed Ahmed Radwan boarded a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Detroit, Michigan on Dec. 6. 2015. Shortly after, a flight attendant publicly announced: “Mohamed Ahmed, Seat 25-A, I will be watching you.” She repeated the announcement at least two more times, but didn’t make any similar statements regarding other passengers.

On Wednesday, the Council on American-Islamic Affairs issued a complaint demanding a federal investigation into the incident. A letter from CAIR staff attorney Maha Sayed to the U.S. Department of Transportation argued that Radwan was targeted “solely based on his identifiably Arabic and Muslim name.”

When Radwan asked the flight attendant why she made the announcement, she argued that he was being “too sensitive.” After further discussions with other flight attendants in which Radwan claims he was cooperative, he was removed from the flight because he made the attendant who announced his name “uncomfortable,” according to CAIR’s letter.

CAIR argues that Radwan was “singled out” and discriminated against because of his identity, “not out of a legitimate and credible safety concern or need.”

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“This incident is particularly troubling given the recent wave of incidents in which airline personnel have arbitrarily removed passengers of Muslim and/or Middle Eastern background without an objectively reasonable cause or explanation,” wrote CAIR’s Sayed.

“These decisions appear to be based on mere speculation or unsubstantiated fear, evidencing illegal discrimination,” Sayed continued.

American Airlines claims that it looked into the allegations when contacted by CAIR earlier this year and found that it was not a case of discrimination, the Charlotte Observer reported.

In a separate case, three Muslim men and one Sikh man who were told their presence on a flight made the captain and crew “uneasy” filed a lawsuit against American Airlines over the discrimination. Another American Airlines flight was delayed in May when Ivy League professor Guido Menzio was reported as suspicious for writing math equations.

In the complaint, CAIR also called for regular sensitivity and diversity training for transportation employees to avoid unfair and discriminatory treatment toward passengers.

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