Bollywood Star Continues To Discuss Newark Detainment

The prolonged questioning of Bollywood star Shah Rukh (or Shahrukh) Khan at Newark Airport on Friday has ignited a debate over whether authorities overreacted. Even an Indian cabinet minister questioned the long time the Muslim star was held—P Chidambaram said the U.S. had "overdone it," pointing out, Had it been for ten minutes or even twenty minutes (of detention for questioning), one can understand it. But one fails to understand how could they hold him for two long hours?... It takes maximum of ten minutes, say twenty minutes, even if you have to frisk a person after stripping him."

Khan says he was kept for two hours while the authorities say it was 66 minutes and a routine inspection was delayed due to his lost luggage. Today, Khan told fans not to make a bigger deal of the issue, he also said, "I think [America] needs to offer a little more warmth and speed in its processes... I understand a country has to be a little careful specifically with the things that have happened," but added, "There is a whole world which makes all the good and bad that is happening. So if you are scared of violence, terrorism, all of us are responsible for it. It is not that the rest of the world is and America is not."

As a commenter noted, Khan ranked 41 (between Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Osama bin Laden) on a Newsweek power list last year. His upcoming movie is titled My Name is Khan; according to India West, he plays "a Muslim Indian man with Asperger’s syndrome, who befriends and falls in love with Mandira... a Hindu single mother living in San Francisco. Their relationship reaches a critical point after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Khan decides to travel across the United States in order to meet the president and tell him that he is not a terrorist." Beer (non-alcoholic, too) diplomacy, anyone?