People seem to be spectacularly incompetent at correctly identifying Middle Eastern ancestry. Passengers on that bus in Tennessee that was run off the road by that Croatian kook described him as "Middle Eastern" and the pics of him later published showed he didn't look Middle Eastern at all....and of course he wasn't Middle Eastern in any way. And the shoe bomber LOOKED as Middle Eastern as one could possibly be, and he turned out to not be Middle Eastern in any way, shape, or form. North African Arabs are often so black as to be indistinguishable from American blacks (like Moussaoui).
Let's face it, once people get an idea into their heads, anyone who isn't blond with a little bit of a tan, or a nose even slightly larger than average, can get IDed as "Middle Eastern Looking." Including most Hispanics, Greeks, and a lot of Italians, or anyone else from the Mediterranean.
True. I'm of Italian descent, and was once mistaken for an Arab. I was actually quite shocked because not only do I not have that dark skin, but the guy who asked if I was was also Italian.