Henry Rollins Is A Threat Because He Reads

Henry Rollins is a musician, storyteller, actor, and an all around cool guy. Henry Rollins is one of my favourite people and I look forward to his spoken-word tours whenever he comes to town. Henry is smart, outspoken, and likes to stay well informed. Henry Rollins hates weakness and ignorance. And Henry Rollins isn't shy.

So it was pretty ignorant and weak when someone seated next to Henry Rollins on an Australia-bound flight noticed he was reading a copy of Wall Street Journal correspondent Ahmed Rashid's book "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia", and after the flight reported him to Australia's version of Department of Homeland Security, who are now investigating him.

"The guy phoned me in to their, like, anti-terrorist board, and they found me - they looked me up," he said. "They looked up the flight and found out who was sitting in seat 10A and they got to me. And they said, 'OK, you're now a person of interest. The man next to you does not agree with your politics and he didn't like the book you were reading.' This kind of provocation, I don't respond very well to. I was furious. And so I wrote back, 'You can tell everyone at your office, including your boss, to go f--- themselves. This book has been read by a ton of people -— I am not a threat to your state or any state or any republic. Baghdad's safer than my hometown and your PM is a sissy.'

The part that really gets him is the passenger didn't have the guts to call him on the book on the flight. Anyone who has listened to Henry Rollins speak knows he isn't shy about confrontation and Henry Rollins is one of the last people I would want mad at me as he is smart, muscular and has free time. The last thing anyone would want is to answer a knock at the door and find a stoked and pissed off Henry Rollins.

"Days later I received an e-mail from a woman who I guess figured out who I was and found me. I had been named a "person of interest."’ Basically, they get calls like this every five minutes, and I'’m probably on the '‘who cares'’ list, in that they'll probably let me into the country again. But the fact that this guy could be that ignorant and call me in on this for a book . . . I was angry. Because of the fact that the guy wouldn'’t confront me. I like confrontation. If I'’ve offended you, let me know. Don'’t call it in and not leave your name. I just think it's pretty weak.

"He didn't even leave his name and address [when he called], and that, to me, is pretty cowardly. The next time I get out to Australia -— that is, if they let me in - I am going to talk about that guy in every interview I do. And it will get to him. It's a small country, in that there aren't a lot of people there and most of the country's just sand and flies. So it will get to him.

Gee, at least it wasn't The Qur'an or Rollins would have been dragged from his bed and tasered. You can be confident that this will be brought up by Rollins on either his new show or on his spoken word tour. The new show "The Henry Rollins Show" premieres in April on the IFC network. No word on any Canadian stations showing it.


HENRY ROLLINS.com

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Henry Rollins telling a funny-ass story of how he ended up working on William Shatner's album, about 25 minutes: Rollins Shatner Anecdote.mp3

Henry Rollins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Henry Rollins Show

Henry Rollins is Not an Islamist at Yeeeah!

mtv.com - News - Rollins Angry About Terror Accusation, Stoked About Talk Show