This British man sounds like a drunk, obnoxious creep, but in any case his obnoxiousness doesn’t justify his arrest and jailing for violating Sharia prohibitions. If he had been arrested for damaging the cab, that would have been fine. But instead, the arrestable offense seems to have been that he was drinking during Ramadan, a provision of Islamic law to which only Islamic supremacists believe non-Muslims are bound. The principle always holds true: in Muslim countries, non-Muslims must conform their behavior to Islamic sensibilities. In non-Muslim countries, non-Muslims must conform their behavior to Islamic sensibilities.
“British visitor jailed in Dubai for drinking during Ramadan,” by Neil Halligan, ArabianBusiness.com, July 24, 2014 (thanks to Twostellas):
A British man was jailed for one month for drinking alcohol in Ramadan, and fined $544 (AED2,000) for denting the bonnet of a taxi, Gulf News reports.
The 51-year-old visitor got into the taxi on Sheikh Zayed Road on July 5 and asked to be brought to a five-star hotel near Dubai Creek.
The Bangladeshi driver said he brought the man to the hotel, but the defendant then became angry when he was asked for an increased fare.
“When I reached the hotel, the defendant was asleep on the back seat. I woke him up and told him that he had reached his destination… he then told me to drop him somewhere else.
“Although the meter read AED4.5 I asked him for AED10 considering that it’s the minimum fare. He got angry and pounded his hand on the hood six times and dented it,” the driver told prosecutors.
Police arrived on the scene at 2am and the Briton was taken into custody after it was discovered he was drunk.
The defendant was charged with drinking alcohol and causing damage to the taxi and he entered a guilty plea when he appeared in court on Tuesday.
Explaining his side of events, the defendant said that he got into the taxi in Bur Dubai and became angry when the taxi driver asked for more money.
“I asked the driver to drop me at a certain hotel… then I remembered that I was not staying at that hotel so I asked him to change his route to another hotel close by.
“When he asked me for extra money, I got angry. I hit the bonnet of his car with my fist and dented it. Police arrived at the scene shortly after he called them. Then they took me into custody and sent me for a liquor test… I had consumed beer,” said the Briton.
The defendant paid for the damage to the bonnet and so obtained a waiver from the taxi operator.
He was taken into custody immediately after the ruling was pronounced.
Jaladhi says
Why non-Muslims even go to any Muslim country is beyond me. They should avoid them totally until they start behaving like human beings!!
Herve Jaubert says
I wonder how many books and how long it will take for people to understand that there is nothing good to experience in Dubai. The place is a fraud, an ecological poisonous area, and an invitation to their prisons, read more of these stories in Escape from Dubai
bernie says
A few years ago, I read about a 14-year-old French boy who was kidnapped and raped by a couple of local guys in the UAE. The local cops at first wouldn’t believe him, and tried to get him to admit that he was gay, which he wasn’t.. Luckily, later the culprits were arrested and charged, and the boy didn’y contract diseases from the vicious rape, though of course he was traumatized.
pumbar says
I’ve been to Dubai airport. It reeks of B.O (body odour, not Barak Obama).
bernie says
LMFAO!!!
I’ve never been to that airport, so I Can’t say. Doesn’t sound good though.
Mirren10 says
Well, I certainly agree with you there.
**No-one**, who can possibly avoid it, should travel to an islamic cess pit.
But, from reading the article, (and yes, I agree, the man is portrayed as an obnoxious drunk), I wonder if this is the truth. The dispute seems to have erupted over the *fare*.
We all know how often mohammedans lie,; it may very well
be, ( I’m not saying it *is*) a case of a mohammedan trying to chouse out of an infidel more money than the mohammedan was entitled to.
The next step, (and how easy to do this, *against* an infidel, in a mohammedan country) is to accuse the passenger of being drunk and violent.
What sharia court will actually weigh the evidence ?
I hope this man will realise how idiotic he was to ever go to this shit hole in the first place.
Reality Check says
About a year ago, a British businesswoman and an Irish welder were accused of having sex at the back of a taxi. I can’t find this anymore but I think the original articles mentioned the taxi fare was at the root of the problem again.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324209/Couple-sex-Dubai-taxi-jailed-months-losing-appeal.html
And then there is the case of the Norwegian woman, Marte Deborah Dalelv, who was jailed for reporting her own rape after the Dubai policemen asked her: “What’s the problem, you didn’t like it?”
I don’t understand why foreigners go there myself. You are walking on thin ice from the moment you set foot in Dubai. All those bars are built to make you leave your money but they are also a prelude to getting arrested – sometimes I even think they were actually built to get you arrested.
I know the money is good (for certain Western nationalities, of course) but sometimes no money is enough to compensate you for having to deal with a two-faced moral cesspit like Dubai, which can blow up in your face right when you expect it the least.
This is my favourite article on Dubai, the one to be read by all, and I can’t recommend it enough- it is a classic:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html
Mannie says
There’s nothing new here. The mope knew the law, or should have, before he went over. It’s just like when I worked in Saudi, only a little looser. Work in barbarian countries, be prepared to obey barbaric laws. Know before you go.
It also sounds like he was busted for aggravated assholery. You get that here, too.
The fact that we tolerate their bullcrap in our own countries, is our fault.