Being objectionable is no crime but being a supporter of terrorism is a crime.Enough leeway has been given to these people in the name of Democracy and Freedom.They misuse it to destroy the society that feeds them.Time that such rallies are banned and if they have any grouse on that they can go and live in any Democratic terrorist free Islamic country.
The phenomenon of Wootton Bassett is something both remarkable and precious. So evocative are the scenes in this small Wiltshire town that it is inevitable that some will seek to exploit them for political ends.
Nick Griffin of the British National Party did just that in November. Now it is the turn of Anjem Choudary, the equally unlovely spokesman of Islam4UK, a web-based front for the banned Islamic extremist group al-Muhajiroun. He has announced his intention to lead a procession through the town, carrying empty coffins to symbolise Afghan Muslims killed in the conflict.
This is a shameful ambition. Just down the road from RAF Lyneham, Wootton Bassett has become a place of compassion, not of politics. The coffins that pass through this town are not symbolic, but filled with the very real bones, flesh and blood of young British men slain in Afghanistan. Their relatives stand and watch, alongside fellow soldiers; locals and visiting wellwishers line the streets.
To consider this mawkish is to miss the point. Eight years into an increasingly unpopular war, here we see the bond between the Armed Forces, and those for whom they fight.
Mr Choudary’s language is provocative (he speaks of “murder” and “genocide”) and his depiction of the conflict in Afghanistan is wilfully false. Contrary to what he claims to believe, British soldiers have died not to further some acquisitive foreign policy agenda, but to deny al-Qaeda a haven and safeguard the security of British cities and travellers. They have done so for all those in Britain, Muslims included. Mr Choudary himself is less likely to be blown up on a bus or a Tube train as a result of their actions. His proposed march displays a mindset and an ingratitude that many will find deeply offensive.
This does not mean that it should be banned. The test of a fair society is how it deals with that which its majority finds objectionable. However offended many will be by Mr Choudary’s plans, the potential for offence is not a basis on which to pass laws. We may damn him and be disgusted by him, and we may call upon him to be ashamed. We should not arrest him. Being objectionable is not a crime.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6977040.ece
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