UK Muslim who tried to smuggle bomb onto flight was let go: cops didn’t realize it was a working explosive

Of course. To have suspected that it was a working bomb would have been “Islamophobic.”

Meanwhile, “Mr Sandiford said the prosecution could not be sure if terrorism was the motive.”

Of course. How could a Muslim carrying a live bomb onto an airliner possibly have anything to do with terrorism? Only a greasy Islamophobe could possibly have such suspicions.

“Air passenger ‘attempted to smuggle working pipe bomb onto Ryanair flight from Manchester to Bergamo but was let go because police didn’t realise it was a working explosive,’” by Samantha Mordi, Mailonline, July 31, 2017 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

A man who attempted to smuggle a pipe bomb onto a plane was allowed to fly again days later because police did not realise the device was viable, a court has heard.

Nadeem Muhammad, 43, was attempting to board a flight to Bergamo, Italy, on January 30 when security officers at Manchester Airport found the device, made from batteries, tape, a marker pen and pins.

Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting, told the trial at Manchester Crown Court Muhammad had intended to detonate the device once on board the Ryanair flight.

But the court heard when airport security swabbed the bomb there was no trace of explosive on the outside and officers did not believe it was a viable device.

Muhammad, who was born in Pakistan but had an Italian passport, was questioned by police but not arrested and on February 5 boarded another flight to Italy.

Mr Sandiford said: ‘At that stage nobody had realised this was a real device and the defendant was allowed to go on his way.’

He said it was only on February 8 when the device was examined again that suspicions were raised and the bomb squad was called.

The explosive was then sent for examination by expert Lorna Philp, who found it was a ‘crude but potentially viable improvised explosive device’.

Muhammad was arrested when he returned to the UK on February 12.

Mr Sandiford said the explosive, which experts said would have been ‘unreliable’ and ‘unpredictable’, was made up of batteries, the barrel of a marker pen, pins, and double base smokeless propellant normally found in firearms ammunition.

If wires, protruding from either end of the tube, had been connected to each other the device would have detonated….

Mr Sandiford said the prosecution could not be sure if terrorism was the motive.

He said: ‘That may be the most likely motive but equally it could be a desire to commit suicide or another purpose altogether.’…