10 Things We Learned From Jon Ronson On Louis Theroux's Grounded Podcast
5. Ronson Once Drove Terrorist Omar Bakri To Office World
The anecdotes come thick and fast at the end of the episode. Like a sugary treat after the chewing of meaty topics that require serious discussion, these are swapped between Theroux and Ronson gleefully. One such anecdote is told by Ronson about a documentary he made in the 90s called Tottenham Ayatollah. It focused on an Islamic terrorist named Omar Bakri, a complicated character implicated in the wave of terror attacks on the west at the start of the 21st century. Ronson spent time with him for this documentary and it was at times bizarrely banal.
Theroux had just finished telling Ronson about the time that he agreed to deliver burlap sacks for a cross-burning. He was excited to be getting up close and personal with his subjects. Then, he had a rethink. He couldn't actively participate in a cross-burning, that would be crazy. The closest that Ronson came to facilitating criminal activity was when he drove Bakri to OfficeWorld, where he would print his terrorist rhetoric in pamphlet form. Bakri asked Ronson to do him this favour as OfficeWorld had a special price promise involving a money-back guarantee.