The Billiken's Bluff

Anti-Bush, Anti-US protest in Bombay on Thursday afternoon.
Crowd estimates varied from 250,000 to 700,000, according to the city police and a protest organizer — or from 10 percent to 25 percent of the Muslim population of Mumbai (also known as Bombay).



An aerial view of an anti-Bush rally at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Thursday.

Nearby, a few dozen men stood under a banner declaring, "We are ready to become suicide bomber." It is a sentiment rarely expressed openly in India, which has had domestic terrorism over the years but whose citizens have not seemed to be attracted to the current global terrorist networks.

"Suppose Bush is here," said Sajid Khan, 25, a student. "I will suicide bomb to Bush. If we could get a visa, we would go there and fight."

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One of my co-workers showed up late last night to the office. He said there was a big traffic jam. He told me that all of these protesters were marching into the traffic. No one could move their cars, bikes. One of the protesters came to his window and waved a chopper at him and yelled at him in Hindi to move his car or he would kill him. I asked him what a chopper was. He said it is a traditional Muslim sword, a scimitar.



He said the protester ran the sword over his windshield, scraping it for menacing effect. Like nails on the blackboard. He didn't seem all that shaken up by this. He said he simply made a u-turn over the median and drove to the near by Parsee neighborhood for an hour or so. He said the Parsee neighborhood is neutral, like Switzerland, so it was safe. That's why he was late to work.