Poppy burner

[GORGEOUSX]

In thinking that the man, who happens to be Muslim, got off with a ludicrous judgement for burning poppies?

I say he happens to be Muslim, because Baroness Warsi thinks Muslims get a bad press.

So this man, who happens to be a muslim, got off with a £50 fine and then went on the BBC news to have a jolly good laugh about it.

When the American reverend wanted to come to the UK to talk about burning Korans, he was, quite rightly IMO banned from entering the country; yet this man who deliberately caused many many British people a great deal of upset and offense, by his disgusting behaviour, and total disregard for people in this country, is not even in prison.

Don't be so ridiculous emoticon -

That's a very good point meditrina.

Found it. he was deeply apologetic, and got 250 hours community service.

Philip Laing was his name and he got 250 hours community service.

Very good point Meditrina.

X post!

Chas Do you think he did it because he was cold?

I didn't see the news, but heard this guy on Radio 2 this afternoon and he sounded like an idiotic, uneducated thug who couldn't make a valid arguement for his point if his life depended on it.

Bizarre that he doesn't count himself as anything to do with this country, but i shappy to claim the £800 a month he recieves in benefits from it. I suspect that is why he chooses not to live anywhere else, nothing to do with the war in Afghanistan.

The thing is, when you have a culture whose religious heritage invented the concept of "Turning the other cheek", that enshrines tolerance in every law, and generally rubs along with the philosophy of Do As You Will An It Harm None, and introduce it intimately to a culture that shares none of these things, contact between the two is not going to go smoothly....

Buy a copy of the Qu'ran, Bible, Origin of the Species. Place a poppy on top. Set the lot on fire with a burning Union Flag that you also own.

So long as you are not inciting other people to harm or hate you should have freedon of speech. People should not have the right not to be offended. Don't like what someone says? Tough so long as it is not hurting anyone or telling others to do so.

I agree JB. The trouble is, our freedom of speech only extends to certain subjects doesn't it? When you take out the 'incitement racial and religious hatred' aspect, or anything that may be construed as sexist, homophobic or bigoted in any way, it only really leaves political free speech! So, not so free really. And there's little point in valuing the concept of free speech if you only need to use it to agree loudly with the establishment.

OK, so we won't be strung up by the nuts and assaulted with a cattle prod, but we will be punished. It's a tricky one.

Agree completely with JB.

Ah to overcome that we need to burn all the politicians. Fed with a nice kindling of judiciary.

Chaos - where everyone is free ;)

*judiciary - burn dictionaries too!

Meditrina - PL's sentence was higher because the offence was different. IRC Laing was charged with Outraging Public Decency because he exposed his genitalia in public (when urinating).

Choudhury was convicted of a public order offence which carries a lower tariff. Had he urinated on the poppies then he might well have been charged with the same offence as Laing and faced the same or a higher sentence.

Personally I'm more outraged by an unrepentant religious thug with no allegiance to this country, who is claiming £800 a month off the British taxpayer, burning a symbol of our war dead during the 2 minute silence than I am by an idiotic, drunken student who was too drunk to realise what he was urinating on and was very very very sorry and contrite.

And I was pretty fucking outraged by the uncharming Mr Laing and no, I don't think being drunk is an excuse.

As others have said, this is definiitely not a racial issue, It annoys me how people mix Islam as a religion with an idea of a racial group based on people in the middle east. Where my Islamic middle eastern family is from, half the state is Christian for instance.

This is a political issue and I don't think his religion should be an issue TBH except where he has made it an issue himself. I think the idea of religious wars is a rediculous part of parts the Muslim faith and down to misinterpretation of the Quran as not all Muslims interpret the idea of religious war in this way; my family certainly do not.

I think there is a general feeling of assault against the middle east by the west (speifically British and US forces) and as these countries are predominantly Islamic, the idea of the religious war has been taken up in defence. The Quran actually teaches that one should never seek war, but only do so in situations where one is being attacked as a method of defence, as these states have tied their culture in with their religion, the lines have become blurred.

This was a symbolic attack against the British forces, obviously reactionary in the man's mind to what is happening in Afghanistan and other Islamic states. Definitely distasteful but not one sided in my opinion when you view it as a political act as opposed to religious. I do think if it had been a Bible, I would have found it incredibly insulting and hypocritical. I believe in God but follow no specific faith so not bias, but as Islam takes such offence to what is viewed as the mockery of symbols of the Islamic faith, I would have expected a much higher penalty for his actions had it been a Bible.

I hope my viewpoint makes sense lol, hard to articulate on this subject.

My view is that Christianity can take care of itself - my God is pretty powerful and burning its Book changes nothing about the truth of Christianity as I see it. (With all due respect to people who don't see Christianity the way I do).

However burning a poppy during a 2 minute silence was incredibly upsetting and distressing to many elderly people, including elderly chaps who fought in that war and lost friends and saw horrific things. They're not big and powerful and it was a slap in the face in the most unkind and disrespectful way.

For that reason I think burning a poppy is worse than burning a religious book.

That said, I still believe in free speech. Grrrr.

If you think about it as well, those war veterans and war dead he was disrespecting are the ones who fought to keep Hitler from killing everyone who didn't match up to his standard of the ideal race.

I'm mixed race and I very much doubt I would be here if it wasn't for the veterans and the fallen soldiers because my grandparents probably would have been enslaved by his regime or murdered. So I'm very, very thanful for those who gave their youth and their lives to fight.

Bullet, that was a lovely post!

My Grandpa fought in the war, detested everything the Nazis stood for and used to say, "The world will be a much better place when we're all coffee coloured!" i.e. he thought we should all become mixed race then there would be no more crimes against humanity to do with preserving a 'master race'.

He did mean it in a nice way, hope you're not offended at 'coffee coloured'!

No offence at all!

I remember reading that his is what scientists actually think will happen in the future anyway, we'll all be coffee-coloured and 7 foot tall. No discrimination then !

I think if someone had burnt the Koran I think there would have been an uproar and demonstrations. Remember Salmon rushdie who had to go into hiding.

I know it is idealistic but perhaps he should be made to do some community service in a care home and explain to some possible war veterans about why he feels the need to burn a poppy. what a nutcase.

The reason why things like burning the Koran etc. is tried under incitement to racial hatred rather than religious, dates back to Salman Rushdie. People were claiming that the Satanic verses were blasphemous; this would looked at by the courts, and they tried to come up with a definition of what a religion is, and what would constitute blasphemy, and gave up as its too difficult. Instead, it can only be religious hatred if it is against CoE. Also, Extreme islamic fundamentalists are very careful about not ending up going to trial for incitement of racial hatred, which is why at a lot of protests you'll see signs like "kill the Juice" rather than what they really mean.

Anyway, this guy is obviously an uneducated moron, but still should know better.

I think people should be prosecuted if they hold signs saying "kill the juice" when it is pretty darned obvious what they mean, and I would have thought that unless they're standing in a petrol station with the Green Party, it would be very obvious what the true message is!

Have never heard of that and am

I think its a bloody disgrace and this country has gone mad. Like many others have said the punishment for burning the Koran would have been a lot stiffer. To top it off hes paying the fine with his JSA. JOKE. That student who weed on the poppies got dealt with more severley.

I think for me my appreciation of the right to free speech makes this something I canot be super upset over. But then inciting hatred is something I believe this country has become too soft on as an offence, so contradictory felings. Saying that, he is uneducated, it was a crass way to put across what he believes to be the hypocrasy of celebrating an institution that is persecuting people overseas.

I think acts such as this discredit his points and are counterproductive.