New York, Aug. 10 (AP): An airline and a federal airport official illegally blocked a man from getting on a flight because he was wearing a T-shirt with an Arabic message on it, according to a discrimination lawsuit filed by two civil rights organisations.

The American and New York civil liberties unions said JetBlue Airways and a federal inspector violated Raeed Jarrar’s civil rights when they barred him from boarding a plane at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport because he is of Arab descent and was wearing a shirt that said, in English and Arabic: “We will not be silent.”

“It is a dangerous and slippery slope when we allow our government to take away a person’s rights,” said a senior staff attorney with the American civil liberties union. "