Rizwaan Sabir
posted by Rob on 31 May 2008
This crap really annoys me. This isn't supposed to happen in Britain. This is the sort of thing I criticise America for: arresting and arranging to deport a student for reading a terrorist manual... as part of his legitimate research into terrorism. Before we deport the students, could we please deport the investigators behind his arrest. They habitually associate with known criminals (as part of their job), they study banned materials (as part of their job), they're part of a para-military organisation that keeps secrets and conducts surveillance of innocent citizens, and unlike Rizwaan Sabir, they don't seem to share the values of the majority of Britons. Deport them without charge or appeal to whichever country their ancestors came from (even if that's France following the Norman Conquest or Italy from the Roman Occupation or Scandinavia from the days of the Vikings). Force them to live by their own idiotic fascist rules. It's not a crime to read, even if your name sounds Arabic.
Comments: 1

All the textbooks for my law classes open up with an explanation of the American political system, but the one for my Evidence & Procedure class starts with an ENTIRE chapter about the founding of the US, the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congresses, etc. I had to read it this past weekend. This is stuff I haven't learned since I was about 16. The thing that surprised me, that I'd apparently forgotten, was just how oppressive the British (of that time) were to the colonies - as much as they could be from a dangerous, several-weeks voyage away - and that's where I come to my point.
You opened this post by pointing out that we have become far more oppressive to our citizens than the UK has. I'm not arguing with you, but isn't that odd? That our intention was to be unoppressed by YOU, and that was why we founded this damn country in the first place? And now we're setting a paranoid, oppressive example for the rest of the Western world?
Aaggh. I'm thinking such naughty words towards Mr. Bush right now.
Posted by: KatharineC | June 2, 2008 01:40 PM