Tue, Feb 28, 2012
Creator Of 'Fireman Sam' Children's Character Detained For
Alleged Racist Comments
A cartoonist and animator best known for his character "Fireman
Sam" was accused of racism by airport security personnel at Gatwick
Airport in the UK and detained for about an hour recently.
David Jones, who created the children's' character, told the
BBC's Radio 4 that he had passed through an x-ray scanner at
Gatwick when he noticed a woman in a Hijab who cleared the
checkpoint without showing her face. He joked to officials "I
wonder what would happen if I covered my face with a scarf," to
which he expected a reply along the lines of "yeah, mate, I know
what you mean."
Instead, Jones said, he was pulled aside by security guards and
told he had made a remark "which someone finds offensive. Come with
me."
Jones denied the remark was offensive, but just an observation.
The guard demanded that he apologize to a Muslim security guard who
had overheard his comment. While he was not arrested, he was
detained for a time he described as "quite a while."
He was finally allowed to go after he agreed that someone could
have found the remark to be offensive, but he was required to be
re-screened before finally making his flight to Fargo in the
Algarve, where he currently resides.
Gatwick Airport said in a statement that there is no policy
requiring travelers to remove religious headwear during security
screening, and "when the Muslim lady in traditional dress passed
through security no alarms activated."
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