Many people left UK to join ISIS or to be kidnapped... Syria is a warzone, and if you are travelling in/from that direction it will raise a questions.
> Police officers questioned Shaheen for 15 minutes
This article is a joke.
Poe's Law in effect.
She was 'held' (original title was 'detained') for 15 minutes. That is not even rounding error at UK international airports.
And half of the article is an ad for the book.
What nonsense. If dodgy individuals constantly feature on this route why does the flight even exist then? Just for "safe" non-brown non-black people?
>She was 'held' (original title was 'detained') for 15 minutes.
"Police officers questioned Shaheen for 15 minutes under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, "
Yeah, Under the terrorism act... For reading a book about art.
Given it was only for 15 minutes I imagine pretty quickly it became "oh, it's a book about art, bloody flight attendants are idiots. Ok, well we need to check your bag for any other books, sorry about this". Except more formal than that as they have a nice sheet full of questions they have to ask for this sort of thing (source, I had a knife in my bag at Gatwick once and went through something I imagine was quite similar - except much more my fault obviously).
The problem is not how long she was held, but the reasons for her being held which just sound an misinformed racism.
Or, let me put another angle on it... If I wanted to sneak into a country from another country I shouldn't be sneaking in from. How would I go about not advertising that fact?
The assumption that reading a book about Syria means you want to bomb London is so ludicrous I can't believe it's even up for debate.
> The assumption that reading a book about Syria means you want to bomb London is so ludicrous I can't believe it's even up for debate.
Of course, that's why no one made that claim. That kind of strawman argument isn't helpful if you want to actually discuss this.
The New York Times had a great article on ISIS yesterday. There is a pathway terrorists are taking from Europe, through Turkey, to Syria, for training, and then back through Turkey, to their home country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/world/middleeast/isis-germ...
But the problem is, someone working for Thompson did make that assumption/claim.
No one is questioning that mentally unstable / impressionable people are being radicalised in the UK, sent via Turkey for training, and back again to blow themselves up.
The issue, as I see it, is that it behoves both the terrorists and our various security apperatus to propagate the constant state of fear. It's no small irony that the end result is mutually beneficial.
Oppression/Terrorism is a reactionary cycle that is very hard to break out of. I fear we may never given the last few years. Those who seek security at the cost of liberty deserve and endure neither.
All you know is what was in the article, "a cabin-crew member reported her for “suspicious behaviour” while reading a book about Syrian culture on a flight to Turkey." That's far from, "everyone reading a book is going to bomb London". The crew member didn't call police to have her arrested, they just saw something, or things, including a book, that they noted as suspicious. Not only is the story overblown, it deters people from actually reporting more suspicious and dangerous behavior.
That might have been on US soil.
Look it. I grew up in the troubles, I was shot at, I was constantly searched on the way to school, constantly suspected always in fear. I saw all sides of a messy stupid war. You know what worked in the end... peace and dialog, it took men like John Hume to rise above it all and just be reasonable, to sit down and talk.
My fear, no.. my firm belief is that this McCarthyism-like nonsense solves nothing, has constantly proven itself to solve nothing throughout history and actually perpetuates the issue.
What?
However, now I'm actually concerned about you. What are you doing on HN? Your counterpoint follows no logic I can ascertain.
No I do not watch Fox/Sky, it does not even broadcast in here. And maybe I should give you ring next time I travel to US, because I think your immigration service is profiling non-americans for extra questioning.
If that's an extreme conservative view then stick a toupee on me and call me Trump, I guess. :P
I think you're missing the underlying goal of terrorism.
This makes the country look bad.
Keep Calm, Carry On when bombs are falling makes the country look strong.
There are far more effective methods to stop extremists. This is just looks stupid.
Honest question: how is stopping someone for 15 minute of polite questioning is "harassing"?
So, if you're being questioned but don't know why, it means that you don't know if you're being harassed or not?
And if you don't find out the reaso later (as it usually happens with security checks), this episode goes down as Shroedinger cat of harrasments in your life story?
For a more prominent example, every time a black American gets stopped for some minor traffic violation, he has to wonder if it's a legitimate stop, or if the officer actually pulled him over for Driving While Black, and whatever offense he came up with is just an excuse.
Most people traveling from Syria ask for asylum or have no valid travel documents, do not speak English and need some form of help. She could be someone who escaped ISIS and needed help.
Some other example: 20 years ago UK border force would question everyone who was traveling from Czechia. Because 0.1% of travelers from there would ask for asylum.
The woman in question is a Biritsh citizen (see title) who most likely speaks perfect English. Also she was travelling from Turkey not Syria.
No, it isn't, you're off base on this. Turkey is one of most popular tourist destinations for the UK, a vanishingly small percentage of people who travel from Turkey are interviewed.