“Close all the churches in Wales or we will behead one Christian a week until our demands are met”
– what’s your first reaction?
Horror?
Disgust?
Anger?
What if the person was arrested before he was able to carry out his violence on an innocent faith community - Relief? Expectation of swift justice?
Would you expect the media to let us know what sick views are in the minds of the extremists behind this evil plan and a detailed analysis of the extremist group of which he was a member?
Would you expect the case to be followed closely throughout the trial until the inevitable prosecution of the twisted individual under some terror charge?
Well I would hazard a guess that the overwhelming majority of us would.
But this didn’t happen.
In fact the extremist in question threatened to behead one Scottish Muslim a week until all mosques in Scotland were shut down. The public reaction would indeed have been horror, disgust and anger if the media had given this case anywhere like the attention we are used to with regards to other forms of terrorism. Fortunately, this mad man, joining the long ranks of those who wish to impose their world view on others through violence, was caught before he could harm anyone.
And the charge?
Breach of the peace.
Read it and weep in The Scotsman:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestnews/Racist-escapes--terror-charge.5169939.jp
Not the first time either:
Not a Muslim in Sight (Trailer): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFEnJXC0Zuc
Can even Trump get something right?
2 days ago
Have you seen the Home Office anti terrorism strategy, its called PREVENT, the only terrorists mentioned in there are Islamic terrorism, the government are increasing the fear of Islam. On the other hand WAG have a Community Cohesion Strategy...its a no win situation.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, well aware of Contest and all the P's (Prevent, Pursue etc) that come under it. WAG's CCS is still under consultation so still time to strike the right balance here in Wales. Justice should be applied evenly and entire communities based on colour, ethnicity, faith etc should not be criminalised for the actions of a minority of headcases.
ReplyDeleteMy mistake. Apparently the consultation period for the cohesion strategy is over - ah well - fingers crossed eh?
ReplyDeleteWhen the Community Cohesion strategy went through our Executive Board which was the same day as we kicked the Contest Report out I did raise the issue of the contradiction between the two. The Contest Report was kicked out because elected members hadn't been consulted about it and they expected us to approve a strategy that committed the local authority to spying on " Muslim looking individuals who are acting suspiciously!!"
ReplyDeleteIn this era of tolerance and diversity I find the government's deliberate policy of stigmatising and stereotyping Muslims as terrorists worrying.
Indeed. I wonder what a 'Muslim-looking individual is'? Brazilian perhaps? Sounds like racial profiling to me. Do we really think the terrorists are that stupid that they wouldn't think to start using 'non Muslim-looking individuals' to carry out their crimes?
ReplyDeleteA little more of the peaceful and tolerant society that all of us cherish seems to be sacrificed each day - we are told it is our way of life that the terrorists ultimately want to destroy and we are handing them small victories all the time.