By SAGANTHECAT
Updated: Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:42:18 UTC

I heard David Jones, ex fireman and creator of childrens TV show, Fireman Sam was on radio 4 a few days ago describing his experience after making a comment about a woman's veil at Gatwick Airport.

I'm sure others have read about this as well but what I found frightening was that he was never charged, indeed he asked for the police to be called and they didn't arrest him but he was held and told all he had to do was apologise for his comment.

The concern I have here is that a Muslim took offence at a comment about a Muslim. The Muslim taking offence was not actually present at the time the comment was made (the comment was “If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen” after he was told to take it off before entering an x-ray scanner, despite the woman not being asked to remove her veil).

The offended Muslim was a security guard. David Jones was held by airport security without any authority and not under police caution, his boarding pass and passport were taken, and he was not allowed to leave until he agreed his comments could be offensive.

Do we now live in a country where a person who holds a particular world view is able to enforce it through their professional authority? Am I being a bit of a militant secularist for being concerned?

TAGGED: FREE SPEECH, ISLAM, SOCIETY