“Tragic” and “Terrifying” Empty Bus Seats
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An anti-immigrant Norwegian Facebook group ‘Fatherland First’ mistook some empty bus seats (below) as women in burqas. The seats were described as ‘tragic’ and ‘terrifying’.
The 13,000 members of the group pondered on whether the offending empty seats could be carrying explosives or weapons underneath their clothes. ‘Get them out of our county – frightening times we are living in’ said one commentator, apparently fearful of the state of Norwegian public transport. Here is a small collection of other complaints against the empty bus seats:
. “‘Should be banned. You can’t tell who’s underneath. Could be terrorists.”
. “I thought it would be like this in the year 2050, but it is happening now.”
. “Ghastly. This should never happen.”
The journalist Johan Slåttavik said he posted the photo “for a joke”. He told the Norwegian news website Nettavisen he was “interested to see how people’s perceptions of an image are influenced by how others around them react. I ended up having a good laugh.”
Norway lately became one of the countries proposing restrictions to the wearing of burqas and niqabs, joining other European countries such as France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria and Bavaria. All five of which restrict full face veils in public areas.