British Freedom of Speech withered, dying

[Scipio]

What the fuck is a "'religiously aggravated' public order offence"?

Calling a Muslim a wog, I would imagine.

[Grey Fox]

Mohammed was a drunk that couldn't handle it.

[Tamas]

So is the muslim also under charges for (allegedly) calling Jesus just some minor prophet of Islam? Because you know, he offendiered them Christians.

[Warspite]

I'm impressed we can conclude that "British freedom of speech is dying" from one paragraph.

[Caliga]

Question:  Has the UK ever had freedom of speech to the extent that it is guaranteed by law in the US?  I don't automatically assume all of the Western democracies do.... I mean look at Germany with the whole Nazi situation.

[Grallon]

A pair of Christian hoteliers who argued with a Muslim guest have been charged with a "religiously aggravated" public order offence.

This is what some were refering to in the minarets thread when they were talking about religion creeping back in the public sphere.  And this is something that's been growing since the increase in mass immigration from the poorer parts of the planet.  The problem is not a muslim bitch screaming abuse (don't they always, for anything and everything?) - but overzealous officials scrambling to avoid offending minorities...

Tcha! 




G.

[Sahib]

This is what some were refering to in the minarets thread when they were talking about religion creeping back in the public sphere

Sensationalized anti-muslim bullshit?
Are the hotel owners supposed to lecture their quests on their religions? 

[Camerus]

 

Is it bad business?  Yes.

Does it warrant having to appear before the police? Of course not.

I still suspect something must be missing from this story.

[Valmy]

Surely there is more to the story than that...

[Martinus]

Question:  Has the UK ever had freedom of speech to the extent that it is guaranteed by law in the US?  I don't automatically assume all of the Western democracies do.... I mean look at Germany with the whole Nazi situation.

No they don't, and it is rather severely limited. It used to have blasphemy laws on the books for a long time and now has anti-offense laws that are very similar but applied to a broader category of cases (notably, not just Christianity but also other religions and I think also nationality or sexual orientation - but not sure about the latter).

They also have a much more broader defamation coverage - we even had a thread some time ago about problems with recognition of the UK anti-defamation judgements in the US, since the systems are so different.

[Grallon]

Sensationalized anti-muslim bullshit?
Are the hotel owners supposed to lecture their quests on their religions?

As I said above - the officials should have dismissed this as frivolous - a private quarrel between citizens since from what we know it was a divergence of opinion on religion.  Nothing that should concern the State or its representatives.  At least that's what should be happening in a lay society, unless violence is used - in which case criminal law is invoked.

And unless there's more that hasn't been published, this looks like a typical case of triumphant multi-culturalism: punish members of the majority whenever some shrill representative of a visible minority makes a complaint.




G.

[Ed Anger]

Don't mention the war!

[Martinus]

That's the image I had when I first read this thread, but then I got distracted by the ideological issues. 

[Jaron]

Reactions to Muslims on this forum remind me of the stories I read about anti-semitism in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.

There is clearly something missing here. Unless we are to believe that no one debates the role of Jesus in religion anywhere in GB, this is an isolated case. It is possible that this couple saw she was a Muslim and decided to hassle her over her religion.

It would be the same if it was a Jewish person who walked in and the couple started to heckle over the question of why the Jews killed Jesus. If that was the case, I imagine there would be more compassion.

Those damn Jews. With their synagogues, and traditions. Why do they refuse to assimilate?

[Martinus]

Reactions to Muslims on this forum remind me of the stories I read about anti-semitism in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.

There is clearly something missing here. Unless we are to believe that no one debates the role of Jesus in religion anywhere in GB, this is an isolated case. It is possible that this couple saw she was a Muslim and decided to hassle her over her religion.

It would be the same if it was a Jewish person who walked in and the couple started to heckle over the question of why the Jews killed Jesus. If that was the case, I imagine there would be more compassion.

Those damn Jews. With their synagogues, and traditions. Why do they refuse to assimilate?

I am not sure if you are trolling or not, but yeah, this is my concern as well, which has started recently to temper my negative feelings towards Islam and its sexism, homophobia etc. I must say I don't know personally any Muslims.