Friday, February 3, 2012

When It Comes to a Muslim Encouraging Others to "Blow Away" People, Context Is All

Islamist website onIslam is in a snit over outrageous behaviour by Quebec provincial police. It seems that in the wake of what OI calls the Prime Minister Harper's association of Muslims "with terrorism as well as declaring plans to reintroduce draconian anti-terror powers" (something that supposedly happened last August), police in that province arrested a Muslim man, a sales manager, who in all innocence had urged his sales team to "blow away" the competion. Three days later, all hell broke loose as he
was arrested by provincial police while picking up his seven-year-old son at school.
Without warning by police, Allami was arrested and detained for over a day while his house was searched.
Moreover, his work colleagues were detained for hours at the US border because of their connection to him. 
 Allami, who was 40 when he was arrested, says he has no links to terrorist organizations or the Islamic movement and that police acted without any evidence or research.
Allami has just filed a lawsuit against the cops, who do indeed seem to have overreacted--big time. However, what the Islamist article omits--but which can be found here, in the Globe and Mail piece--is that the word Allami used was "exploser." Which in the context of a marketing pep talk may sound pretty innocuous, but which in the larger context of some Muslims having a penchant for "exploser"-ing stuff...not so much. Let's just hope that the next time someone uses "exploser" in the context of an actual explosion, police aren't reluctant to look into it because of what happened with Allami.

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