So, this guy walks into an office
May 16th, 2006
And it’s a Western Union office. In Dublin. And he tried to send some money. But he can’t, because of this: (extract from Irish Times, subscription required for full story)
Mohammed Ali (31), a father-of-one who has been living in Ireland for six years and is due to become a naturalised Irish citizen shortly, said the money was a present for his sister-in-law who lives in Karachi.
After being told his name matched that of a terrorist suspect, he said he was asked to provide additional evidence of his identity over a two-day period before the funds were eventually released.
“I thought is was a joke at the start. Then when I told my wife, and she started crying. She was scared and didn’t know what the consequences would be. I am a Muslim. I was also worried, about what might happen to us. My wife is expecting another child in a few weeks,” Mr Ali said.
After providing additional proof of his identity, Western Union staff told him he was able to proceed with the transaction. However, Mr Ali said he never received an apology.
OK let’s thing about that one for a moment. His name was Mohammed Ali. How thick were the Western Union staff? I suppose we should be grateful that they didn’t accuse him of being a fake boxer. I bet he ‘looked like a terrorist’ too. Imagine an Irish guy going into a bank in London and being refused a transaction because his name “Paddy Murphy” matches a wanted IRA terrorist’s name…
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May 17th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Hello, I’ve been thinking about setting up a small web ring of Irish law blogs. You’ll see a logo image map on the bottom right of my sidebar in my main page:
(http://irishlegalfiction.blogspot.com)
I still haven’t worked out all the code for inserting the links onto the image but should be able to manage it soon. If you’d like to join up, I’ll add a link to your site onto the logo for the web ring. Just let me know if you’re interested. Thanks.
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Good idea.