Yesterday – around half past four in the afternoon – sitting on the bus. Young man gets on – it’s the stop nearest the main mosque, he’s dressed in a white robe and wearing a highly decorated cap. Suddenly he starts speaking loudly (not shouting) – “Allahu akbar!” and continues for several minutes.
What goes through your mind at that moment? Well, the question “What’s going to happen next?” crossed my mind, as did the thought that it might be a good idea to get off the bus.
What actually happened was that a passenger of Asian appearance looked very discomforted, everyone else kept quite and pretended that everything was ok and eventually the bus driver told him to “pack it in”.
Whilst I never felt in any serious danger – I know the man in question by sight and had a long conversation with him on Boxing Day – my guess is that other passengers also recognised him and believed him to be harmless. Even so, I was disturbed for most of the rest of the day.
It could have been very different – it could have been someone different – someone could have taken the law into their own hands and attacked him – people could have panicked, insisted on stopping the bus, getting off and phoning the police. A harmless man could have been arrested or terrified or worse. Anything could have happened – it didn’t – but it could.
Image – this was taken earlier in the year the same bus route
After Work 
I was on the “Tube”, way back, long before July 2007, but during the “Troubles” The IRA had detonated a bomb on a tube train at Whitechapel. The train was crowded and I was stood at the end of the carriage by the connecting door to get some air from the little window. There was a large sports bag by my feet with no obvious owner. (1) Do I pull the alarm and alert the driver. (2) push the bag off the train at the next station, then alert the authorities or (2) Shout, in a loud voice, “whose is this bag?”. I went for (3), to no obvious effect. Half the coach was filled with foreign visitors. I wasn’t about to pick it up for risk of letting it off so I tried (3a). Always good with foreign people. SHOUT VERY LOUDLY SEVERAL TIMES and then point. Works every time. A sheepish looking foreigner walked half the length of the coach and took custody of it. I was sweating when I got off.