PORTLAND, Ore. -- Three separate airline incidents in one week have one thing in common: witnesses say in each instance, the airline passenger either detained, delayed or kicked off the plane all appeared to be Middle Eastern.

"It just makes me really, really sad and I feel like this is people who are terrorists want us to feel. So, it's just isolating that population even more," Harris Zafar, a national spokesperson for the Admiddiya Muslim Community said.

Earlier this week, on a Southwest Airlines flight out of Chicago, two men say another passenger became uncomfortable after overhearing the friends speaking Arabic. One of the men later told a Philadelphia TV station the passenger demanded they be removed from the flight. The men say they were told by an agent that they could not board. They were eventually able to get on the plan after one of the men called police.

The same day but on a different Southwest Airlines flight out of Chicago, a similar incident reportedly occurred.

A day earlier in Baltimore, three men and a woman were kicked off a Spirit Airlines flight after a passenger raised concerns about terrorism. The four were later cleared and placed on a different flight.

Zafar speaks at universities and does a daily Periscope session he's dubbed, "Talk to a Muslim,"

"When things like this happen, where Muslims are seemingly targeted, you can maybe use the word persecuted, that is fodder for extremist organizations out there," Zafar said. "You can imagine, they have a scrapbook that's full of all these examples of Muslims being vilified, Muslims being attacked, mosques being sprayed with bullets and this is all part of their recruitment to say, 'See young Muslims out there, we're the ones that can help you defend yourself.'"

Zafar is not only referring to headlines. Earlier this week, he says, one of his close friends who is also the National President of the oldest Muslim youth organization in the United States was detained because a nearby passenger complained he was texting "terrorist messages." At the time, Zafar says, his friend was wearing traditional Pakistani clothes.

"What we did to the Japanese in this country, what we did to black Americans in this country, what we did to Jews in this country or around the world, that serves as a reminder that we don't want to do this again," Zafar continued. "It's a stain in our history. So, let's learn from our mistakes and make sure that we don't do the same thing to either the Latinos these days, the Muslims these days..."

In a statement released to KATU News Southwest Airlines commented on both incidents writing:

"On Wednesday evening, Southwest Flight #126 from Chicago (Midway) to Houston (Hobby) was delayed departing the gate after several passengers refused to follow Crew instructions. Reports indicate that the situation involved seating arrangements and repeated attempts from those passengers involved to save seats and rearrange other passengers onboard the aircraft. Our crews were unable to resolve the situation without delaying the flight so we rebooked the customers on a later flight that same day. Flight #6599 had a slight, two-minute delay boarding Customers while our Customer Service Agent completed a brief passenger conversation in the gate area. After the conversation was resolved, all Customers boarded the flight out of Chicago Midway and traveled to their scheduled destination of Philadelphia."

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"islamphobia"