BUNGLED RAID IN LONDON

I've been saying, ever since the outset of the first gulf war, that a huge block of the world's people have an extremely deep-seated need to kick Arab ass, and any Arab will do in a pinch.

or in this case, non-arab (bengali) muslims

Thay get lumped together anyhow.

It is sad.

As an asian in UK - I don't feel safe anymore - even arnd the police.

I think you're right, EB, there is a lot of hatred, and those who hate don't particularly care whom they hate. I long lived in or near Columbus, Ohio, which has the largest Somali community in the United States. After September 11th, there were many incidents of hatred expressed toward the Somalis, who, of course, had nothing to do with the terrorists, and no connection to al Qaeda. Many people in Africa and the middle east send money home by means of an informal network which has been around for centuries. They will go to a shop and give cash to the shop keeper, who then telephones a relative at home, and that relative gives the equivalent of the sum of money in the local currency to the family of the person who first took the cash to the shop. They've been doing this forever, but immediately after September 11th, one of the Somali men in Columbus who had been doing this for years was arrested on a charge of laundering money for terrorists. It took him more than two years to clear his name, and it cost him thousands of dollars. The fact that he is Muslim, and that he sends money to Somalia was enough for the Feds to crawl all over him.

Prince, i completely understand your attitude. You have my genuine sympathy. Given that you once used Gautam as your screen name, am i correct in assuming that you are, nominally at least, Hindu and not Muslim?

Yes. But you can't tell by looking at me

As far as an average brit is concerned, I am just another brown asian !!

And that's precisely the problem, innit?

Precisely mate !!

Do you think I should move to Canada?

There has been a good deal of ruckus in Canada of late because of the arrest of 17 men and boys alleged to have been involved in a bombing conspiracy. What stands out about the response in Canada is that there has not been (noticably) an anti-Muslim response. That is not to say that there are not bigots in Canada, i have no doubt that there are. However, the general tenor of the public response has been some nervousness, but a continued commitment to the ideals of multiculturalism. Some windows were smashed in a mosque, and it was widely condemned. By and large, the social imperative among the Canadians seems to be tolerance.

Re: BUNGLED RAID IN LONDON

Well, thats one thing they got over the Americans: those will release people from Guantanamo, or some Afghan prison they were kidnapped to (Khalid El-Masri), without charges after many weeks or years, and still not apologise.

In yesterday's (London) Evening News (print edition, West End Final, frontpage and pages 4 + 5), some articles from a news conference were published:

The three brothers arrested all had long beards and shaven heads. That justifies of course 250 police raiding the area, setting up an air exclusion zone over e London !bursting into the premises at 4 am, sticking guns in peoples faces and shooting one man in the shoulder. The three men were questioned about their beards, (one on a morphine drip for the bullet injury) and released. Police have apologised for any inconvenience caused.

Honestly, in the famous words of Richard Littlejohn tabloid hack for the Sun


you could not make it up[/i]