University of Wisconsin business professor Abdalla G. Mohammed has sued Southwest Airlines for allegedly singling him out for in-depth security inspections due to his ethnicity.

Mohammed, born in Sudan, wrote in a federal court complaint that airline officials refused to tell him why he needed to undergo inspections on his flight from Nashville, Tenn., to Madison in November 2001.

Mohammed said in a statement that security guards ordered his search after other travelers selected by a computer system were already separated for further screening. He also wrote that when he asked to see a supervisor and continued to request justification for his screening, guards beckoned police and asked him to leave the airport.

Southwest Airlines attorneys have stated that Mohammed was asked to leave because he would not fully comply with the security checks.

Attorney Thomas Dundon, who is representing Southwest Airlines, said Mohammed had no way of knowing he was not targeted by the standard computerized system that weeds out potentially dangerous people for inspections. The attorneys interviewed the Southwest personnel involved in the incident and concluded the guards did not choose Mohammed independent of the technology, Dundon said.

“Airlines are prohibited of basing [services] on race, creed or color, and they are fairly careful in observing that,” Dundon said. “In this case, what we believe is that Southwest personnel did not select Mohammed for specific screening, and it was done by CAPPS computers.”

Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening computers flag individuals under close government watch with special travel histories and randomly target approximately 15 to 20 percent of airline travelers.

However, an updated screening system that delves deep into passengers’ personal lives is expected to be introduced by Transportation Security Administration within the next year. According to the TSA, the system will require all passengers to divulge their date of birth, address and telephone number in exchange for fewer screenings of only the most potentially dangerous individuals.

Dundon said the computerized criteria for screening specific passengers are classified information, but security guards must search everyone the system finds suspicious.