So, you spend your own money and buy a copy of a book that has been printed in its hundreds of thousands. You then film yourself liberally covering it with accelerant and setting fire to it. What laws have you broken? Apart, possibly, the Fire Precautions (1971) Act or the Fire Precautions Workplace Regulations (1997)?
Well, there must be a law, or this man wouldn’t have been arrested. Perhaps being an odious creep is now a crime? Maybe it is because he is a member of the BNP (I’m sure there are those who would wish it so)? No? What, then?
A statement from the Home Office said: “The government absolutely condemns the burning of the Qur’an. It is fundamentally offensive to the values of our pluralist and tolerant society.”
Fine, condemn it if you wish. It is offensive. Oh, diddums. The free speech principle means that people get to say ugly things that offend the sensibilities of a pluralist and tolerant society. The measure of that pluralist and tolerant society is that it allows those people to express themselves in such a way without getting our knickers in a knot and without sending out the police to arrest them – when they haven’t actually, you know, committed a crime.
“We equally condemn any attempts to create divisions between communities and are committed to ensuring that everyone has the freedom to live their lives free from fear of targeted hostility or harassment on the grounds of a particular characteristic, such as religion.”
No! Absolutely not. Religious belief is a private matter – it is not something that places the believer above robust criticism and, yes, well deserved ridicule in the case of Islam. Nor is religious belief a special characteristic of an individual or group that places them above having their feelings hurt because their egregious holy book has been immolated – it is a belief, nothing more, nothing less and deserves no special treatment, least of all with kid gloves.
And, the home office does not understand how liberty works. We should have the expectation that we may express ourselves in a liberal, tolerant and plural society by whatever means we wish, using what ever imagery gets our point across, without the fear of arrest. That is the only freedom worth having. If you want to couch in terms of “freedom from” – something politicians persist in trotting out – well, it’s freedom from the state.
Superintendent Phil Davies of South Wales police, who led the investigation, said: “We always adopt an extremely robust approach to allegations of this sort and find this sort of intolerance unacceptable in our society.”
And there was me thinking that the role of the police was to detect crime and catch criminals, not harass someone indulging in a perfectly valid protest. Looks like the Saudi religious police are now active in the UK.
Bang on. Burning the Bible, Koran, flags or poppies is offensive but part of free speech. That’s what makes us better than Islamist savages. Take our free speech away and we have nothing.
The police are arseholes in this instance.
“And are committed to ensuring that everyone has the freedom to live their lives free from fear of targeted hostility or harassment on the grounds of a particular characteristic, such as religion.”
Fine, so when is Supt Phil Davies, and his cohorts elsewhere in this once fair isle, going to do something about the “minorities” who would happily see me beheaded, stoned to death, or blown up, just because I don’t believe in their religion???
The sooner twats like him are removed from a position of authority the better.
And, just to set the record straight, I don’t consider my self religious. However I regularly visit some of the lovely old Christian churches round here, and often find myself apologising for my lack of faith. But I have NEVER been accused of being an infidel. Invariably I have been received with kindness, and thanked for my interest.
So when I film myself burning a bible and post it on youtube I should expect an immediate reponse from the police. I think I might actually just do it to see what happens – or rather not happens.
More patronising claptrap. Are Muslims all so incapable of rationalty that this lone provocateur is creating an incitement to greater crimes by burning some paper and ink?
My Muslim neighbour – a fine chap with a very pleasant family with whom I get along very well – when I asked his opinion about the Koran burning in the US last week simply shrugged and declared the perpetrator a twat. I like to believe that most of his religious compatriots see it in those terms; exactly as all other reasoning folk, rather than a reason itself to go on a kill-crazy rampage.
I think people should be free to burn the Koran and should also be feel to wear a burqua. But judging from the Guardian’s CIF, the posters who have no problems with burning the Koran are precisely those who want to tell a Muslim woman what she may or may not wear and use violence to enforce their point of view.