This article is from the archive of our partner .

Human frown Richard Dawkins is fuming after being separated from a tasty jar of honey at the airport over the weekend. The author, scientists, and noted atheist was traveling yesterday when airport security confiscated his vessel of sweet golden goo because of current liquid restrictions. Honey-gate spurred Dawkins to write: "Bin Laden has won, in airports of the world every day."

Dawkins's declaration of humankind's monumental loss against terror happened on Sunday, and judging from his Twitter feed this morning he's still fuming about it.  Here's Dawkins's complete bin-Laden-has-won tweet:

"Dundridges" is Dawkins's word for petty, bureaucratic, zombie-ish, rule-followers. While many people agree with Dawkins that these long-enforced liquid rules are stupid (Dawkins himself says he was aware of the law, but chose not to follow it), could his reaction have been a little too much?

Is a world where an Englishman is separated from his jars honey really the benchmark for a bin Laden victory? Is a honey-less world really the end of the free world that Osama bin Laden envisioned? We can't help but hope there is some al Qaeda operative in some dusty, dim bunker sending a message to hell, which reads: "Sir. We got it. We have won. We have Richard Dawkins's honey jug. We're done here."  

It's probably a good time to mention bin Laden's actual goals. One of the first fatwas he ever issued had to do with dissolving the American-Israeli alliance and unifying Muslims around the world. Another of his early fatwas centered on bankrupting all Americans:

We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.

It doesn't seem like Dawkins's honey or inconveniencing travelers are on those lists.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.