EDDIE IZZARD - IZZARD MISTAKEN FOR A TERRORIST IN MIDDLE EASTERN BIRTHPLACE

IZZARD MISTAKEN FOR A TERRORIST IN MIDDLE EASTERN BIRTHPLACE

British comedian EDDIE IZZARD was almost arrested within minutes of returning to his birth country of Yemen, after he was mistaken for a terrorist.
The Ocean's Twelve star was born in the Middle Eastern country, where his accountant father was working for BP (British Petroleum), and moved to Britain as a one-year-old.
And the 46-year-old had never returned to Yemen - until last year (07), when he, his father and brother made a pilgrimage that got off to a very bad start.
Izzard recalls, "I decided to film everything, because it was my first time back in something like 45 years. It's not encouraged in airports in Arabic countries, because they think you're C.I.A. or something.
"This plain-clothed Arabic guy started yelling at me. I said, 'Tourist, tourist, tourist,' which is the wrong thing to say - because it sounds like `terrorist'."
Izzard talked his way out of trouble, and later discovered his mistake: "My brother asked someone afterwards, 'Do you like tourists?' And they said, 'No... because they blow things up.'"