My friend Richard will disagree, but if phone salesman Harraj Mann was singing along to The Clash’s London Calling then I think he deserves to be hauled off and questioned.
“Safety is paramount and we respond to concerns from members of the public in the way they would expect us to,” said a Durham Police spokeswoman. Too right.
OK, I’ll bite.
He was ‘a mobile phone salesman of Indian origin’… he obviously had The Right Profile. (Clash song joke, for the uninitiated.)
Strummer & Jones’ lyrics are, of course, riddled with references to violence and insurrection, but I can’t believe anyone would think they’re a serious manifesto for the full-blown terrorist.
In any case, I’m pretty sure rock music is considered ‘haram’ by Wahhabists. And on a purely practical note, I gather al-Qaeda affiliates are known for tight operational security. Announcing their intentions through strident punk music is hardly likely to help them elude the long arm of the law.
We all know the BBC are a little, erm, inventive when it comes to criticising the WOT. But if this is true, then it’s a laughably over-zealous response to lawful activity. Apart from the inconvenience and distress caused to Harraj Mann, the problem is that incidents like this make us all sceptical of any legitimate security measures.
At least he didn’t request a track from the Clash’s shithouse final album ‘Cut the Crap’. That really would’ve been criminal.
(Incidentally, I regularly played the same band’s ‘Career Opportunities’, which contains the line ‘I hate the Army and I hate the RAF’, whilst in uniform – and wasn’t clapped in irons.)
Harraj Mann blogs at http://www.myspace.com/Rabland
— seems to be authentic. Scroll down & click on ‘Everyone MUST Read This’ for his side of the story.
It looks like the Beeb are on the money with this one.
And to make it even easier, here’s a direct link to “Rab’s story of detention”:http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=63403172&blogID=104117087. The layout’s so lame it _must_ be true…
Sorry, should’ve put in the direct link myself. It was late and I was tired….
If any one actually knows Rab then they will know that he’s an absolute fruit loop and i would have done the same as the taxi driver under the circumstances. Everyone is bad mouthing the police and security but the guy actually thinks he’s a genius and compares himself to people like Albert Einstein for god’s sake. I say well done!! And who in their right mind asks a random taxi driver to play their mp3s through the car stereo anyway? I know i wouldn’t!
[Printed as received, except for corrections to punctuation and typography.]
OK, so “anonomous” doesn’t like Rab. But “thinking you’re a genius” and being (allegedly) “an absolute fruit loop” is _not_ grounds for police detention or invoking the magick word “terrorist” in defence of ignorance and intolerance.
It’s _exactly_ this sort of ludicrous over-reaction which makes the Fear Everything Different Strategy so dangerous.
Oh, and if you’re going to slag off at someone, it’s probably good form to have the guts to put your name to your comments.
Oh, surprise surprise. “anonomous” gave a false email address when posting his/her comments.