British siblings removed from Easyjet flight over false Isis claims

Three British Muslim siblings were removed from an Easyjet flight and questioned - after fellow passengers informed flight crew he believed they were looking at Islamic State propaganda on their phones.

Sakina Dharas, her brother Ali and sister Maryam, who were all born and raised in London, were waiting to take off at Stansted on 18 August for a weekend away in Naples when the incident occurred.

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They were escorted off the plane by a flight attendant just minutes after boarding.

They were then questioned on the tarmac by counter terrorism police, before being allowed to re-board. The flight was delayed for around an hour.

Speaking to the Guardian, Maryam said: "We're told a couple had reported us having been reading Isis materials. [They said] the pair of us, meaning me and my sister, had been reading Isis material. My sister and I wear headscarves. We thought, there's clearly profiling going on here.

"We were asked 'have you had any Arabic on your phone? Have you been reading the Qur'an?' We don't even speak Arabic, we don't know Arabic, we're not even Arabs."

Maryam added that the experience was "humiliating". Sakina wrote a first hand account of what happened on her Facebook page.

A spokesman for Easyjet said the trio were questioned after concerns were raised by another passenger.

According to the Telegraph, the spokesman said: "The police then confirmed to the captain that the passengers were cleared to complete their journey and they reboarded the aircraft and the flight departed to Naples.

"The safety and security of its passengers and crew is our highest priority which means that if a security concern is raised we will always investigate it as a precautionary measure.

"We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to the passengers."