Inflaming Tension Or Freedom Of Speech?

[agchristie]

Should this event have gone ahead and with Mr Wilders due to speak, could this have seriously invited trouble to London?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exhibition-of-cartoons-depicting-prophet-mohamed-cancelled-amid-security-fears-10462745.html

[Svejk]

What cowards we have become. They should have taken some advice from the Texas police dept. They know how to organise these things.

[agchristie]

Yep Svejk, Charlie Hebdo has set the benchmark.....

[andy-hughes]

I think it would have invited trouble, and I think that was possibly part of the plan in the first place.

Violent extremism is inexcusable, but so is deliberate provocation masquerading as free speech.

[agchristie]

Take Gert Wilders out of the equation, would it be more acceptable or was this idea a non-starter?

[Gromit]

If anyone wants to SEE these cartoons, they can do so on their computers in the safety of their own home. I assume the huge bill to police this pointless exhibition/demonstration would be met by the tax-payers.

Putting them on public display, when a minor section of the community is violently oposed to them is:

a) a provocation
b) asking for trouble
c) a waste of money

[douglas9401]

Allowing a minor section of the community to be violently opposed to cartoons is:

a. Gutless
b. Letting the tail wag the dog
c. Asking for trouble
d. A waste of good housing stock

[Gromit]

Douglas,
So we should let people die?

[Gromit]

The organiser, Anne MarieWTers. Seems to have some 'interesting' friends.

// In June 2014, Waters shared a platform in Copenhagen with Lars Hedegaard, the man behind the anti-Islam organisation the International Free Press Society. A video of the event- the launch of a Swedish edition of Hedegaard’s book Muhammad’s Girls: Violence, Murder and Rape in the House of Islam - shows her sitting next to the Dane, who was convicted of hate speech in 2011 after stating that ‘Muslims rape their children’, though he successfully appealed this conviction, on ‘free speech’ grounds, the following year. Chairing the event was Ingrid Carlqvist, a key member of the Swedish counterjihad network. Also on the panel was psychologist Nicolai Sennels of the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, a prolific purveyor of Islamophobia dressed up as science. The video was produced by Dispatch International (DI), a mouthpiece for the counterjihad movement – for which Waters has written extensively – founded by Hedegaard and Carlqvist.
In her speech, Waters linked Islam to child abuse, saying (16:08) ‘it’s all linked to Islam’, which she characterised as a dangerous ‘ideology’ being ‘appeased’, adding (17:45): ‘it is exactly the same appeasement that is allowing young girls to be raped in Britain, it’s got nothing to do with race, it’s got to do with the fact that we will not confront the misogyny at the very, very heart of this religion’.
Waters also seems to have another far-right admirer, of more significance in the UK context. Alan Ayling (aka Alan Lake) helped set up, fund and strategise for the EDL, as an investigation by The Sunday Times revealed. A millionaire evangelical Christian, Ayling’s links with the counterjihad movement led Scotland Yard to interview him after Anders Behring Breivik’s 2011 massacre in Norway.
In a series of videos taken in October 2014 at Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park, which show Waters and others delivering diatribes against Islam, Ayling (wearing a black jacket and black t-shirt with yellow writing) can be seen in the group that appears to be supporting her between 1:08 and 1:19 in this video and from 4.40 in this clip.
Ayling may have showed up uninvited or coincidentally. Though Waters’ various online links to the EDL have been documented, there is no definitive evidence of any offline connection. Ayling, in fact, is believed to have parted ways with the EDL, though his views have not changed. He now runs the website ‘Four Freedoms’ and has links to the far-right Sweden Democrats party. Waters did not respond to repeated requests to clarify her relationship with Ayling or to comment on other matters raised in this article. //

[douglas9401]

No Gromit, we should deal with the lunatics in our midst instead of allowing them to infect even more 'ordinary' peaceful adherents.
Maybe drag their minds into the times that gave them the weapons they're so fond of too.

We have exhibitions upsetting Christians, gays, women, men, animal lovers etc etc. The list is almost endless.
The ironically named religion of peace is the one that we have to stand back from?
You can't let the mangy tail wag the dog, it needs treatment before it turns septic.

[Gromit]

Douglas,

No one has banned this exhibition. The UKIP organiser has called it off. You think she is gutless?

[douglas9401]

No-one has banned it, it just wouldn't be allowed to go ahead and you know it.

In effect, banned.

[Gromit]

Douglas,

More like she chickened out.

[youngmafbog]

Dress it how you like Gromit, it is banned.

It is very sad to see that we cow tow to a minorities wishes, just where wil lit stop?

Wont be long before Sharia law is allow3ed, wouldn't want to offend would we?

And when they want to behead people in the streets or throw gays off tall buildings would you be happy to stand up to them then or would that still be hurting their feelings and their 'ooman right to slaughter anyone who disagrees to appease their religious beliefs?

[Gromit]

The police advised her that there might be trouble. But a ban would have to come from the Home Secretary, and it is doubtful that she would ban an art exhibition.

She either list her nerve, or more likely, they never planned to have an exhibition in the first place, and it was all a stunt.

[douglas9401]

When the full weight of the state security apparatus is brought to bear, Gromit, people 'chicken out'.
The game's not worth the candle since it's rigged to start with.
Pandering to those who would overrun us will end in tears.

[dannyk13]

Douglas, // a minor section of the community//
lam is the second largest religion with results from the United Kingdom Census 2011 giving the UK Muslim population in 2011 as ~2,706,066, ~4.5% of the total population. The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom live in England: 2,660,116 (5.02% of the population). 76,737 Muslims live in Scotland (1.45%), 45,950 in Wales (1.50%), and 3,832 in Northern Ireland (0.21%).

[Gromit]

Sharia law will never be accepted in the UK. The process of UK law making is well established and Sharia coyld never make it through the process.

Talk of legal beheadings on UK streets, and gays dropped from tall buildings is fanciful nonsense.

[youngmafbog]

Thanks for confirming. 4.5% of the total population seems to be a minority to me and if you cut that down to Muslims that are violent or support it then the figure is probably miniscule.

[TWR]

Can people remember Lenny Henry & the way he use to take the Izz out of his own? I don't think anyone should take the Izz out of each religion, especially this religion for obvious reasons.

[Gromit]

DannyK

I think the distinction is between muslims and violent muslims. Only a small minority would kill someone for exhibiting cartoons.
Like only a small minority of Christians would kill abortion clinic workers.