Since I don't want to derail the travel thread further, here's a shiny new one. Let's see how long we can stay civilised on this potentially heated topic.

As to Treverus' question - I called him a "Schweinehund" (animals picked intentionally) and ratted him out to the driver. To be honest, I find all religious fanatics quite scary and am not about to pick a fight with someone who has 64 virgins waiting for him if he dies in a fight with an infidel. To put it in slightly hyperbolic terms...

I wouldn't die for virgins, regardless of quantity.... I mean... Not much talent There, now is there???

You know there s loonies everywhere, and quite often on public transport: you did the right thing not to react.

Well you see, In Mexico it probably wouldn't be their arms they would be pinching/smacking...

The problem is that he was just incidentally muslim. He could very well have been from any other culture. Try a japanese train during the peak of rush hour. But to equate that as typically muslim behavior is dangerous and unfair to those who have the decency not do do such things.

Wasn't the guy shouting something in arabic at her? (It escapes me as the other post was deleted). Although she wouldn't be able to generalize, she can well conclude that it is, culturally, Muslim/islam related.

Same with mexicans and the metro.. you can't day we are all... no wait, yes you can.

There are other such incidents, like when I was in the A&E with someone and a muslim gentleman was refusing to have a nurse or a female doctor treat him because he considered them useless. I just don't understand how you can go to another country and expect them to act like you wish.

I guess the problem is inherent in any religious belief that asks its followers to act as missionaries and classes those of other belief as borderline subhuman.

And I know perfectly well that there are highly educated and open-minded muslims abound, I have the privilege of knowing several of them. If you don't force me to do something, I will adapt my ways out of courtesy, no problem. However, these people are getting pressured by more fundamentalist members to become more extreme in their practices and not the other way round.

you've clearly got a thing about muslim men. have you been on the london underground on a friday or saturday night? can be quite nasty for a woman. have you been on japanese or russian public transport? there are plenty of weirdos on most public transport

Back home we don't call them muslims, just plain misogyne.

They grow up like this as part of their culture. It has nothing to do with Islam.

Because in my Islam, woman are not different than man. In the Islam of many people I know, women are not different than men.

It is not the religion who makes the man, it is the man who makes the religion.

That is HIS problem and his prerogative. He can choose to deal with that anyway he wants. Just as the moment it imposes on your decisions, you can choose to deal with it the way you want.

The same cultural situations exists in Switzerland, you know? I was picking up a passenger and briefly parked my care between two spaces. For reasons unbeknownst to me, an elder Swiss felt he needed to come to instruct me to use only one space. There were hundreds of free spaces around, and he didn't even need it. Why is it that people have to get their noses in other people's business?

I have a thing for not being able to just ignore people who act abnormally AND I seem to fit the beauty ideal for certain regions of the world that sadly have very different views on what women should be like or what they want.

And no, I haven't been on the underground much but doesn't that prove what I'm saying? Isn't it wrong that a woman in the western world refuses to use public transport at certain times because people from another culture have decided to impose their norms on another place?

Because they can....

Why not? We got away with it for centuries!

Rule Britannia!

Phos, you were not following the cultural norm here, which is that you don't park just any way you like. Now if you'd done the same thing in the US, well, your first challenge would have been to FIND two parking spaces to take because everyone seems to double park. But then they have ginormous parking spaces, unlike this small place.

It is called multiculturalism. This is why we can eat japanese, libanese, ethipian cuisine. We get the good and the bad....

I was going to say something about that but decided that's a massive can of worms. So many more people would be wandering around wearing interesting bits of cloth rather than boring western uniform if it hadn't been for colonial missionaries.

I was sitting in the car, the engine was running, and my passenger was nearly there.

I just don't agree with people imposing their culture on other people who are not of their culture, especially in this day and age.

Anyway, when are we going nude hiking?

of course you're right: you should be allowed to travel unmolested and in safety on public transport. its just that you can't seem to contain your underlying bigotry which seems to have overspilled from the other thread.

^Please explain? How am I a bigot?

Phos - ok, I didn't get that, you were just dropping someone off, that's different. I guess he wanted to do a preventive strike. Me, I'll think that sort of stuff but I will never confront people about it. Unless it's really bad like shaking a crying baby.

Actually, I politely, subliminally and unoffensively told him to F-off; which he happily did.

By the way, I don't really think you're a racist bigot. A little touchy, thin skinned, or petulant maybe. But I do respect your right to be frank in speaking your mind.

I say a topless demonstration would make for a great protest action, don't you think? I can organize some coverage.