Man converts to Islam and is abducted by Muslims. Apparently he's outraged.

This takes the biscuit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6651793.stm

Uhm... I'm sorry. What???

You converted to Islam, a "religion of peace" tm. You fucked off to Syria, and when you suddenly realize that the rabies addled fucks are full of shit, you suddenly want us to do something about it?

Fuck off.

Yep, I agree with Dr E.F. Looney, his Fault. Any brit or American dumb enough to think they are safe in Syria, Iran, or most of the middle east is going to get what they have coming if they try and visit without an Army backing them up.

Would you feel the same about this if he had gone to Syria without converting to Islam?

Yeah, I'm with Quas here - why the fuck would the Syrians care?

"Yo, you there, you a terrorist? If so, come here, we got better weapons and shit."
We're talking about Syria here - they're the guys trying to blow up Israel and they're probably not exactly opposed to terrorists getting into Iraq.

In addition - I got to know a Lebanese family in Summer '05 when I was in Britain. They were wunderful - lively, friendly, great food. Unfortunately, they were moving back to Lebanon (well, for me it was fortunate because it meant they were around more!). Turns out that wasn't the best decision ever. I feel bad for them but I can understand why they went back - it's their home after all (plus it's Lebanon and not Syria).

Anyway - don't see what all the hassle is with this guy - did he give up his British citizenship or something? Why else should he lose protection? From what I see in that article he went to study Arabic at university. Nothing terrible in and of itself. OTOH, this is the BBC and I'm pretty sure he was doing some other shit.

Sounds like they were playing mind games with someone they thought was a British spy.

Did his wife buy it? I gotta admit that's a pretty good cover story for a three month bender. And this bit is pure gold:

Now he just needs to keep his mouth shut, he's gonna blow it if he keeps making statements like this:

Now that his romanticized view of Islam has been shattered, I wonder if he's still bowing to Mecca five times a day.

I am somewhat disturbed by the implications of many people in this thread that an individuals religion should influence their governments support of them.

As far as we know this man had not renounced his British citizenship. He just moved abroad like thousands of Brits do every year (many of them ending up in Arab countries like Dubai and Saudi). So why shouldn't he be entitled to help from his home country?

Clearly I would. I'm not going the religous route here, I just think moving to Syria and just thinking you'll be safe if you're a white guy from the US or Britain is a fairly obvious dumb move.

If he'd died I'd vote him for a Darwin.

I admit I'm surprised by that attitude. I'm undecided myself, but I would have thought you would have liked a stronger stance from the British government, or your own government in a parallel scenario. Not persuing this seems like a massive sign of weakness even to me.

Btw, two colleagues of mine, both visibly quite white and one ostentatively Christian, spend several months every year in Syria and/or Iran at respective universities, and don't seem to live, or feel they live, under constant threats.

How are we supposed to believe your imaginary anecdotes?

Your choice. I've learned by now you've completely immunized yourself to information you don't like.

We've all learned by now that you are a liar and a fraud. Don't play victim, Fritz.

A British citizen asking for help from the British government when a foreign government mistreats him! Next thing you know people will be asking their governments to do all sorts of things that they're supposed to do!

I'm guessing "stronger stance" means "harshly-worded letter of condemnation for the Syrian government to ignore."



Maybe they prefer to expend less effort on accomplishing nothing?

How about trying to figure out what the fuck actually happened here?

How it that supposed to happen? Syria is blowing it off. You expect that Great Britain is gonna go to war with Syria just to get answers?

I'm not victimized when you refuse to learn things. At least not until you decide Germany's hiding WMDs and invade.

So that's the only alternative to "We consider this case closed." that you can think of?

I'd say he's entitled to appraise any anecdotal observations he hears based on his assessment of the provider, whether he likes what he hears or not

Let's hear your alternatives.

What exactly is to be learned from your comment, even if he does choose to believe it?

Absolutely. He is also entitled to assess the provider on the basis of whether he has liked what the provider has told him before; and he is entitled to stick his head into a mincer, provided it's his mincer.

That's called freedom! And before his and his fellow citizens' immunized idiocy got things like the Patriot Act approved, his country was a beacon of freedom. Remember?

My comment? Not a lot. Why?

I'm remembering why he was prone to dismiss your observations, yes.

I mean, if it was anything like this one you just made :flow2:

Then what "things" were you referring to that he was refusing to learn?