Free Speech On Trial Today Or Bigotry In The Dock?

[sandyRoe]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-27501839

[sandyRoe]

He's been charged and appears in court today.

[Svejk]

Free speech.

[anotheoldgit]

/// The evangelical Protestant preacher also compared Muslims to the IRA. ///

If anyone has a case I think it is the IRA.

[Peter Pedant]

thx sandy.

I was gonna say he hasnt been charged

but the update says he has - can you keep us informed ....

yhx again PP

[Gromit]

There is no trial.

So e pne has reported his remarks as imflamatory. At worse he may have to apologise and that will be it.

In the context of Northern Island, where sectarianism is almost a professional sport, the comments were rather mild.

I remember the Rev Ian Paisley regularly denouncing the Pope as satanic, but there was no law then to be broken.

[jno]

same as Anjem Choudary, then. If one's tried, I can't see why the other shouldn't be.

[andy-hughes]

I'd say bigotry.

It is hypocritical in the extreme to use a platform based on love and charity - a church pulpit - to preach such vitriol.

[youngmafbog]

//Dr Al-Wazzan said the Muslim community enjoyed a "good relationship with every faith". //

Really ? What about the Kaffir then?

jno, whilst I appreciate you would like to see Anjem Choudary get off, he really is a different kettle of fish.

[jno]

I appreciate you would like to see Anjem Choudary get off

You've just made that up. I have never posted about Mr Choudary. I would like both hate-preachers to be treated alike.

[Gromit]

Ymb,
Why do you people on the right just make stuff up and attribute it to your opponents?
Is it lazyness?

[ichkeria]

The guy is an illiterate embarrassment to Northern Ireland. Let's keep this sort of religious bigotry where it belongs: on the eastern side of the Irish Sea

[andy-hughes]

ichkeria - //The guy is an illiterate embarrassment to Northern Ireland. Let's keep this sort of religious bigotry where it belongs: on the eastern side of the Irish Sea //

I would dispute that religious bigotry actually 'belongs' anywhere.

[andy-hughes]

youngmafbog - //jno, whilst I appreciate you would like to see Anjem Choudary get off, he really is a different kettle of fish. //

Let's see - religious leader - check, vile religious hatred spewed out at every opportunity - check, an unassailable belief that his own faith is the only faith, and all others are to be damned - check, use of a platform furnished by a religion based on peace to preach hatred and bigotry - check, both fallen foul of the law of the land because of their narrow-minded hate-filled rabble rousing - check.

Nope - can't see any differences there ...

[vetuste_ennemi]

"Let's keep this sort of religious bigotry where it belongs..."
Do you think everyone who believes that Christianity is the true religion is a bigot, Ichkeria?

[naomi24]

andy-hughes, //Nope - can't see any differences there ... //

You forgot one that doesn't check. An enemy of his country. Now can you see a difference?

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - //andy-hughes, //Nope - can't see any differences there ... //

You forgot one that doesn't check. An enemy of his country. Now can you see a difference? //

A matter of semantics I think.

I would suggest that any individual who lives in a country, and preaches racial and religious hatred against other people who live there could be classed as 'an enemy of his country' - being born in the country they preach their poison into is something else they both have in common.

[ummmm]

I don't think they can be compared.

[naomi24]

andy-hughes, Semantics? I don’t think so. One is an enemy of his country – the other is not. Wheedling around the issue doesn't change the facts. Choudary would happily see the flag of Islam flying over Downing Street and you – and the rest of us – dead.

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - //andy-hughes, Semantics? I don’t think so. One is an enemy of his country – the other is not. //

I think that is a matter of degree.

It is really easy to link extreme Muslim clerics with the notion of 'hate preaching' - like most people, when I hear the phrase 'hate preacher', the vision of Mr Choudary and similar does come to mind.

But let's not imagine that because the other cleric in the discussion is a cuddly white Irishman, that he is any less poisonous in his heart - or indeed in his agenda.

[andy-hughes]

ummm - //I don't think they can be compared. //

Then we must agree to differ.