Your name is a terrorist.

Western Union is blocking money transfers if the recipient has a name that sounds like a terrorist. If your name is Mohammed or Ahmed, good luck using their service.

The number of people inconvenienced in the Emirates alone, which closely cooperates with U.S. counterterror operations, is thought to be in the tens of thousands. One Western Union clerk said about 300 money transfers from a single Dubai franchise were blocked or delayed each day - none of which has turned up a terrorist link.

The article's writer says, "Western Union's caution is perhaps understandable." WTF? Nobody prevented wire transfers of money to guys named "John" after Hinckley shot the president. These restrictions are ludicrous and examples of the worst kind of profiling. Just another example of Your Government overreacting and destroying personal freedoms.

What's even worse is that these rules are forcing law-abiding citizens to use other means of money transfer as an alternative, some of which are not the most legal. Persecution and false accusations are turning people into criminals.

(I know it's not right to make fun of people because of their names, but the guy that runs the office in Bur Dubai is named Nixon Baby. Snicker.)