The clue is in the bloody name!

[Bob The Drummer]

Could you clarify:

- Are you proposing that applicants for airline jobs with Muslim-sounding names should be barred from applying/screened out at the very first stage?

- Or that such applicants should be subject to additional vetting beyond that already in place?

Yes, I am.

Richard Reid didn't work for an airline and I would have hoped that any vetting would have highlighted his and his fathers criminal tendencies.

This additional vetting for applicants with Muslim-sounding names - presumably intended to uncover radicalisation and/or links to terrorist suspects - it wouldn't have been applied to Richard Reid, would it?

[RichardCranium]

Should we be suspicious of people with a Muslim background wanting to work for an airline?

No, because that would be illegal discrimination.

But then you're discriminating against non Muslims, by saying they could be Muslim terrorists

OK then, pedantry-pants.

Yes, we can be more suspicious of people with a Muslim background wanting to work for an airline, or any other group as we please.

But we cannot act on those suspicions in such a way that those groups are treated differently, because that would be illegal discrimination.

If we want to be suspicious about any particular group and subject them to additional checks, those checks must be applied to all.

Which, given Mohammed-the-bomber-Ali-Fatwa, or Paddy "Squaddy Sniper" O Reilly, or even Norman Nutjob, might apply under the name of Billy Bunter, might be a good idea anyway.

HTH instead.

[Churchill]

This additional vetting for applicants with Muslim-sounding names - presumably intended to uncover radicalisation and/or links to terrorist suspects - it wouldn't have been applied to Richard Reid, would it?

Nope, you're quite right. However his criminal record should preclude him from working in aviation. Oh and the fact that he converted to Islam in prison and his association with certain mosques and clerics may have been a big clue.

[lilelvis2000]

If we can trim down the ability for muslims to work in most areas of work and then deny them benefits - because there are lots of jobs available - perhaps they'll get fed up and leave.

Though that could be difficult as they'd be banned from planes, trains, buses, ferries, boats.

I see it now.

[Churchill]

If we can trim down the ability for muslims to work in most areas of work and then deny them benefits - because there are lots of jobs available - perhaps they'll get fed up and leave.

Though that could be difficult as they'd be banned from planes, trains, buses, ferries, boats.

I see it now.

Don't be a ***** all your life.

[lilelvis2000]

Don't be a ***** all your life.

[Bob The Drummer]

Nope, you're quite right. However his criminal record should preclude him from working in aviation. Oh and the fact that he converted to Islam in prison and his association with certain mosques and clerics may have been a big clue.

Are you saying that no convert to Islam without a criminal record would ever apply for an airline job?


Also, this additional vetting for applicants with Muslim-sounding names - who would decide which names were Muslim-sounding, and on what basis would these decisions be made?

[EternalOptimist]

Are you saying that no convert to Islam without a criminal record would ever apply for an airline job?


Also, this additional vetting for applicants with Muslim-sounding names - who would decide which names were Muslim-sounding, and on what basis would these decisions be made?

thats a tricky one indeed.

Abu Hamza or John Adams ? sheeet, we'll have to toss a coin boys

[lilelvis2000]

thats a tricky one indeed.

Abu Hamza or John Adams ? sheeet, we'll have to toss a coin boys

Franck Ribery???

[EternalOptimist]

Franck Ribery???

50/50
see which hand he wipes his bum with