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| England flag to become illegal in England? |
The first case was toward the end of 2010, and the person in question wanted to oppose the building of a new mosque because of irregularities in the planning process. Now this article is not going into the rights or wrongs of his argument, just the facts that happened on the day. He, and a few others, tied a St. George's flag on a railing near the building site entrance and sang 'England' songs as a part of their protest.
In the UK we are famous for people having protests such as this, it is a part of our national identity that occasionally you go into town and there is someone holding a protest about something or other. Quite often people dismiss them as 'eccentrics', smile and move on. That is not, however, what happened in this case.
Within four minutes the police rushed to the scene in two squad cars and immediately detained the one protester that couldn't get away. He had done nothing other than display the flag of England and sing England songs, I have seen the transcript of the interview and the interviewing officer said that because he displayed the flag in a 'diverse' (ie muslim) area, the man in question was committing a racially aggravating offence.
Are we therefore to say that muslims are not English, or British? I would think a good many would disagree with that, and indeed I would go further to suggest that the lad in question who was arrested was not committing an offence of this nature, more that the officer arresting was committing this offence. He quite clearly infers that muslims are not only not British, but further that symbols of the nation such as it's national flags are indeed offensive to muslims to such an extent that arrest is necessary.
Today, there are two more cases to be tried in Durham. The offence? Someone had done two items of graffitti. One of a poppy, another of the St. George's cross. Yes, that is indeed vandalism, though I do not know whether the two people going to court today actually did the graffitti or not, however it is only a minor 'crime' on the scale of things. You can't go on any rail journey in this country without seeing some, and some 'artists' have gained a living from it.
So why is this case going to court?
The images of the poppy and St. George were within sight of a mosque. Suddenly they now call it 'racially aggravated' again. Why? Is the state now saying that we must not support the state any more? What should we do? All convert to islam?
There are many British muslims who consider themselves British patriots, these sort of cases must make them furious. It definitely makes me feel that way.
Keep the faith, and God Save the Queen
