Reflective Perspectives

Yesterday i was stopped by the London Metropolitan Police. A stop and search under the terrorism act, they say.Funny thing was, this is the SECOND time i've been stopped. At the same place. More or less the same time.

Does this look like a terrorist to you?



No rightttt?

Then they searched my bags and i think they found these things:



Let's see..a prayer mat, a qiblah compass, Macroeconomics textbook, external hard drive, my pencil case and the camera. Nothing dangerous there, i presume. Except maybe the prayer mat and the compass. Yes, that makes me a fundamentalist. Satisfied now?

What's wrong with being a fundamentalist anyways?? As a well known blogger currently residing in God-knows-where says, being fundamentalist means you uphold the fundamentals of Islam, which really makes you a better person and not some terrorist killing civilians.

But then, they didn't really accuse me of anything, so no need for emo-ing. It was just a harmless stop-and-search, one officer searched my bag and the other did small talk. No good cop bad cop routine here.

Then they issued me two pieces of paper:





Let me see..stop and search code H & J...so its Terrorism s.44(1) & 44(2).

Once again i searched credible sources (Wikipedia, again). Terrorism Act 2000, if you want to search for it. But particularly this section:

Section 44 powers (stop and search)
The most commonly encountered use of the Act was outlined in Section 44 which enables the police and the Home Secretary to define any area in the country as well as a time period wherein they could stop and search any vehicle or person, and seize "articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism". Unlike other stop and search powers that the police can use, Section 44 does not require the police to have "reasonable suspicion" that an offence has been committed, to search an individual.

In January 2010 the stop-and-search powers granted under Section 44 were ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights. .

So it's ruled illegal! But that's ok, we can do whatever we like, we're gonna catch those terrorists mate. And they happen to look suspiciously foreign, maybe Muslim (i don't know how Muslims look like) and preferably Middle Eastern. 'No reasonable suspicion' my a**e.

Paranoid.

If you don't want people to come bomb your country, don't go make some fantasy tales about WMDs and bomb their place.