This is a problem with all transliterated languages. It’s worse for Arabs because until modern times they didn’t have “conventional” surnames. Their name was

This is a problem with all transliterated languages. It’s worse for Arabs because until modern times they didn’t have “conventional” surnames. Their name was a composition of a given name plus that of their forefathers’, often appended with “Abu” (meaning father in Arabic), and sometimes the addition of a clan name. In my ancestral home of Egypt, the government often standardized everyone about 100-150 years ago with whatever names they were carrying at the time. So you could be completely unrelated to someone and have a partially matching last name. Combine that with America’s gleefully racist views of Arabs - particularly after 9/11 - and you have a recipe for disaster with no-fly lists.