In the United States lawyers for Raed Jarrar, an airline passenger forced to cover his T-shirt because it displayed an Arabic script, say he has been awarded almost a quarter of a million dollars in compensation. Rajini Vaidyanathan reports from Washington:

Listen to the story

His lawyers claim he was ordered to remove the item of clothing by staff who said other passengers felt uncomfortable with the Arabic slogan. He eventually agreed to cover the shirt and boarded the plane, but says he was made to sit at the back. The Transport Security Authority and JetBlue airlines agreed to settle the case, paying out a total of $240,000 in compensation.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Mr Jarrar, argues that this case is not isolated. It follows an incident last week in the United States where a Muslim family were ordered off a domestic flight operated by AirTran airlines after passengers claimed they were making suspicious remarks about security. The group was later cleared by the FBI, but were not permitted to fly with the airline to continue their journey.

Rajini Vaidyanathan, BBC News, Washington

Listen to the words

payout
a large sum of money paid to someone (here, as compensation)

the practice of racial profiling
forming opinions on people, or holding stereotypes of them based on their ethnic backgrounds

slogan
a short catchy phrase that reflects the ideas, principles and/or goals of someone, usually an organisation or a group of people

to settle the case
to pay the money claimed in order to stop further disagreement

argues that this case is not isolated
says this is not the only example of a similar situation/problem

ordered off
officially told to get off

suspicious
here, making you feel that something wrong is happening

cleared
proved to be innocent

Read more about this story

To take away:
Download or print (21 K)