…from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
–George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)
One of the things that makes us different from those who would destroy us is our adherence to civil liberties; freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of religion… You get the picture here. Those who would destroy us wish to eradicate these liberties, for freedom is an anathema to their twisted ideology. Some use words, some use protests, some burn flags or poppies and some would resort to the bullet or the bomb. However, none of this matters to what is important and that is sticking resolutely to our principles. Let them have their say and laugh at them. Let them burn flags or poppies and let us deride them. If they attack us, we round them up and prosecute them, but stick to the principles that make us so much better than they are.
To stamp on liberties – theirs as well as ours – is to admit defeat. It is the mark of the coward. And, today, we see cowardice in action.
Home Secretary Theresa May is banning Muslims Against Crusades, a group planning an anti-Armistice Day protest.
Despicable though this group is, abhorrent as its message may be, their liberties are our liberties and holding a protest no matter how distasteful, is a basic civil liberty. In banning them, May hands them a victory without them lifting a finger, she does their work for them far better than they ever could. Well done. Nice to see this lot are no better than the last lot when it comes to our precious civil liberties.
Anjem Choudary – yes, he – has a choice quote to offer in response to having a propaganda coup handed to him complete with side salad:
Responding to the ban, he said: “I think it is an abject failure of democracy and it is a victory for sharia Muslims. The truth is something the government would rather silence.”
He’s right, though, it is a victory for these nasty bastards. Politicians are just too stupid or too scared to admit it. You do not protect liberty by denying liberty to those who would deny it to us. We are bigger than they are, we are better. Our liberties are too important. Let them have their temper tantrum, let them show themselves for what they are – intolerant and ignorant bigots – and let us demonstrate our dignity by honouring the dead despite the fit of petulance, not by banning it. We can cope without resorting to the thin skinned offence taking silliness that has pervaded our society and turned us into a nation of lily livered weaklings. Shame on you, Ms May, for shame.
Originally prepared for Orphans of Liberty, but the site is down at the moment. Don’t know why.
There just vipers, LR.
There are 2 reasons for the ban…
1) It diverts attention away from May’s links to the UKBA leniency scandal.
2) The government and police were very aware that there was the potential for a very serious breach of the peace if MAC ever got anywhere near their demo on Remembrance Day. Over 2,000 EDL plus several more hundreds of other patriot groups and football supporters were known to also be making their way to the site and were not in a mood to see any poppies burned that day.
It would hurt these people more if their ‘protest’ was totally ignored by the MSM. But then editors would have to grow a pair wouldn’t they.
It’s almost as if they were working to a plan, a blueprint of a future totalitarian regime with cameras on every corner and spies everywhere spying on the public and each other, where lies are truth and slavery is freedom. And everyone has plenty to eat.
Can’t think where they get their ideas from.
Winston Smith
Excellent post LR. You have illustrated all that really counts in the end.
Democracy prevails most brilliantly when civil liberties are applied to all and applied even handedly, even to those who otherwise conspire against us.
You correctly point out, our system of governance is better and indeed we are better. To give in to that which we fear and/or abhor and stoop to illigitimate means of controlling or silencing others is to give into cowardice and is arguably far worse than anything our enemies could imagine for us.
I would argue that any compelling urge to restrict, ban, prohibit or censor is, at it’s core, a lack of faith in democracy, WE, the People and self. Wherever and whenever the urge is entertained, all are diminished.
Perhaps May was spooked by the reaction which they are increasingly provoking. This won’t work, of course, but I see this as her trying to avoid taking more drastic action.
If there was really a dastardly plot afoot, I’d expect the stunt to be allowed to go ahead and then the ensuing unrest used as cover for all sorts of repressive measures.
LR has re-produced this one over on Orphans of Liberty. More comments there for those interested.
This lot has been banned before, just the name was different.
Maaarrghk has of course pointed out the blindingly obvious,no point in banning an organisation ,as this lot have been on several occasions ,if they simply change name again and reappear,plus the use of arrest for incitement to violence is never carried out ,so its a cop out that solves nothing.
Not quite.
No freedom for the enemies of freedom.
( As it says, somewhere in the Federal Republic of Germany’s constitution )
These bastards want to enslave us to their Dark-Ages camelherders’ myths.
Furthermore, on this date, in particular, we should remember that the ultra-islamists tick all the boxes that are marked: “Nazi”.
We are at war with these people, and we should remember that, also.
And driving them underground helps how, exactly? The best way to fight this war is to have the enemy in the open where we can see and hear him.
Well the state obviously wants to be seen to be fair to all parties and just to even things up has arrested 170 EDL members for on the face of it having a drink together.
That’s a good post there. Fundamentalist Libertarianism, I salute you. May we all reflect on this, as freedom lovers we sometimes need to take a tough stance.
The best way to fight this war is to KILL them.
Or beter still kill their revolting ideas.
In their instance, based on the existence of a mythical big sky fairy (allah in this case) and a so-called “prophet”, who was child rapist.
Ever so nice.