Scorpions Drummer James Kottak Sentenced to One Month in Dubai Prison for Saying Some Really Racist Sh*t

I don’t know how this didn’t make headlines sooner, but: on April 3, James Kottak, the fifty-one-year-old drummer for Scorpions (he’s also played with Dio, Warrant, and a bunch of other notable hard rock/metal artists) was arrested in Dubai, and has been sentenced to one month in that country’s prison. He also has to pay a fine of 2,000 United Arab Emirates Dirham, or $554.51.

His crime? Well, according to The National, he drank five glasses of wine on a flight from Moscow to Dubai (which is roughly a five hour flight), and then, after deboarding, got lost in Dubai International Airport, and then vented his frustration by screaming about “non-educated Muslims,” refusing to travel with Pakistani and Afghani passengers while covering his nose and complaining about their “disgusting smell,” flipping everyone the bird, and mooning everyone. Hard to believe they didn’t take kindly to that.

Kottak admits he was drunk but denies all of the other stuff, and claims he didn’t moon anyone, but, rather, “just lifted my shirt up to show the tattoo on my back.” Again, I’m amazed that that defense didn’t get him off the hook. Weird.

So Kottak is a racist prick, and I hope his time in jail is/was extremely unpleasant (he’ll be released soon, as the time he’s spent in prison since his arrest counts towards his sentence). That being said, I’d like to take a moment to point out something interesting here. The National says that Kottak was “convicted… of insulting Islam” and “drinking alcohol without a licence.” And while you can certainly get arrested for acting like a drunken asshole at the airport, you can’t get arrested just for insulting someone religion and/or drinking too much. I can stand on my corner with a forty in a paper bag and scream the N-word all day, and it would be my constitutional right to do so. Just something to consider the next time someone Dave Mustaine, Trevor McLave, or the dudes in Reformers complain about fascism just because someone voiced an opposing viewpoint.

As you were.

Thanks: Kim W.