h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The same as I felt about people with Irish accents when IRA bombs were going off probably.

I put it in separate compartments.

But I can't say for sure...none of us can.

Oh and after the London bombings I was incredibly angry...and nervous for sometime about bus and tube travel...but again I don't remember connecting that with the average Muslim person I saw in Peckham in the street.

If the person was wearing a niqab how did you know the person was looking grim? You couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman, but you could see their emotional state?

Do you see the eyes, anhaga? http://tinyurl.com/8xtew36

And you haven't said what you would have felt in my position.

I see the eyes, but I can't tell how that person is feeling.


And I can't say how I would feel -- I simply don't know. I only know how I will react to a new situation when I'm actually in the situation.

It didn't matter too much what they were feeling (probably just tired), but that's not to say one can't see stress in the eyes.

I think you can imagine the thoughts that passed through our minds, though, can't you?

Sure I can.

Okay, I'll let you go.

*Siesta time*

Really what's your point RE?

It's blindingly obvious none of us would know until the situation arose. How panicked and irrational we'd be feeling after such a close shave...exactly what that particular person looked like and how they were behaving..etc etc

Yes you reacted in a human way in the close aftermath of a shocking event...we're all human.

It's how one behaves to someone in a niqab a month later that would be more relevant.

"It's how one behaves to someone in a niqab a month later that would be more relevant."


Or how you would react to the innocuous use of the word "niqab" years later on an internet forum.

I'd have thought it 'blindingly obvious' that had the person sitting so close to us on that train not been hiding themself, there would have been no reason for concern.

"Or how you would react to the innocuous use of the word "niqab" years later on an internet forum."

That thread was closed not simply because of Hoo's intransigence, but also in view of the childish name calling and general unpleasantness aimed at him.

He did not say, nor did he imply, "niqab=Muslim=terrorist". He may well think that 'niqab=Muslim=possible terrorist' - in which case I would agree with him.

Bad things happen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Madrid_train_bombings

He refused to recognise the word.

He refused because of its link to a particular sub-sect of a particular group of individuals.

That group he associated with violence and mass murder in order to terrorise.

a=b=c

"He may well think that 'niqab=Muslim=possible terrorist' - in which case I would agree with him."

So in that context, you refuse to recognise the word?

It was also the pretense that problem with the word was simply that it wasn't English, not that it might have any association with nastiness.

I repeat: Hoo did not say, nor did he imply, "niqab=Muslim=terrorist".

English has been (and continues to be) greatly enriched by words drawn from foreign languages. 'Niqab' is now part of our language - why on earth would I refuse to recognise it? I am not Hoo.

Now, I'm off to watch Frasier.

anhaga, the fact that the person in question didn't recognise the word in question to be English was only part of reasons _why_ that were given.

I think I'll head off from this thread now.

I don't understand people who want to keep on raking at things. The points have been made ad nauseam. Everything's been said that's needed to be said.

And really he could easily have posted about all this on the actual thread yesterday. Maybe he did I don't remember, and don't really care.

It's been much nicer in general on hootoo today. I want to keep it that way.

The Bar thread is a classic...very creative.