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."

FMI: www.gatwickairport.com