British Muslims picket Downing Street in protest of Charlie Hebdo cartoons

[MrsTawdry]

So the Daily Mail report it as "thousands" whilst the Telegraph say "at least a thousand"

Can't find ANY other sources for it. How is this ok? Free speech yes...but...

Anyone should be able to peacefully protest about anything they like - that is one of the many mechanism of democracy. I don't have to agree with them. (And it's a side issue, but I am not clear what this march is asking for, either.)

Dione they are using free speech to campaign against anyone else using free speech. What the fuck?

They are using free speech to demonstrate their displeasure at stuff that has been written. That is legal.

They should not be labelled terrorist sympathizers/FGM apologists/proponents of child abuse and slavery because of this.

I would have liked to see some protests when Lee Rigby was killed. There was a deafening silence when Alan Henning, David Haines and all the other hostages were killed by ISIS.

This group of Muslims are protesting about other people having free speech wrt their religion and that is absolute madness to me.

The problem there, Tired, is that saying things like 'Be careful with Muhammad' sounds very much like trying to shut people up.

I agree. that's quite threatening and I don't like it either. Free speech should stop at directly promoting violence, and this comes quite close.

Dione they are using free speech to campaign against anyone else using free speech. What the fuck?

yup. you can do that. That's part of free speech. You can use free speech to say you want to limit free speech. Muslims are the first to do that, and won't be the last.

Here is from The Guardian.

Of course they have the right to express their views freely.

However, they took a petition to Downing Street signed by 100,000 people, which is calling the freedom of speech “an affront to the norms of civilised society”, equating journalists to terrorists and demanding to curb free expression by "global civility" "to prevent further incidents of this nature occurring". They condemn the murders in one sentence, and threaten and explain them away in another.

They petition to suppress the freedom of thought, free debate, and give credence to the idea that the wictims "asked for it".

I am not offended, but surely this deserves a very robust rebuque.
Not by some racist nutters.

*aren't

They were met by a group of far right protestors...were they in the right too?

"cold-blooded killers or uncivilised expressionists"

Interesting comparison...

I know women who were planning a demonstration against that misogynist fuckwit who likes to strangle women. Had he been granted a visa and their demonstration gone ahead it would have been a case of freedom of speech/protest against freedom of speech. Would you have opposed this demonstration Bazoo?

Nobody would blink an eye if it were Jews with "stop anti-semetism" banners.

I think you will find, BigRedBall, that history is littered with examples of people doing quite a bit more damaging things than blinking an eye at the idea of Jewish people suggesting in public that they have a right to safety.

Couldn't give a fuck about that right now to be fair dione if you're accusing me of being racist just fucking say it?!
Anything against islam is racist after all...

We have MPs who represent everyone in the UK. I imagine that most MPs will take a look at their daft petition and put in it in the ignore pile. If the protestors don't like the fact that the main parties are not interested in their silly petition then they can set up their own political party. If a muslim friendly political party gets enough votes then the UK can become a muslim country.

What is wrong is for a minority of people to attempt to impose their views on a majority with threatening words like "Be careful with Muhammad". It would be fair for the police to ask a protestor exactly what they mean? There may well be a language barrier rather than the person being dilieberately threatening.

Free speech is already limited in that incitement to racial and religious hate is illegal.

Fuck it im out left wing lunacy prevails!

Thanks for the link. One thing jumps out at me:

personalities that others consider sacred The keys words here IMO are 'others consider. Everyone can consider sacred Muhammad, Jesus or David Icke, but no one else on earth should have to 'be careful' what they say about these figures.

The UK will never be a Muslim country,lets not be silly now, the rise of UKIP shows that.

Perhaps the 'be careful with muhammed' sentiment is more about recognising that this is something valuable to a group of people and therefore please treat it with respect.

Which is fair enough. And the marchers are respecting the laws of this country by demonstrating peacefully.

It's a shame Muslim people didn't take to the streets when that poor young man was put in a cage, doused in petrol and burned alive.

But you can't have everything I suppose.

Politicians quietly putting this petition in ignore pile? Isn't that part of the problem? The petition is praising the press for staying quiet.

The cartoons are not comments about the Prophet (muslims do understand this surely), they are comments about an ideology help by people. These views cannot possibly be off limits and should absolutely be scrutinised.

held by people

Muslims have every right to start up a "I love Islam" party and persaude the rest of us to vote for them. I suspect that they would get a similar number of votes to the lib dems or the green party. In the event of a hung parilament a "I love Islam" party with one seat in say Bradford could influence govement policy.

They could do a deal with the tories that their sole "I love Islam" MP will vote for privatisation of the NHS in return for a law that makes publishing pictures of Muhammad illegal.

Perhaps you think I am being flippant, but that is how the democratic process works.

Ubik1
There is nothing to stop you protesting in the streets that you feel the govement has not done enough to prevent that poor man from being burnt alive in a cage. The great thing about a democracy is that anyone can choose to peacefully protest about almost anything.

Non muslims have the right to peaceful protest as well. Tensions do rise when the English Defence league and fundermentalist Muslim groups want a protest in the same area. It is a massive job for the police to balance the right to protest with the right for people to be safe.

The cartoons are not comments about the Prophet (muslims do understand this surely)

Well, you'd think so, but some of the responses including this demonstration do suggest otherwise.

One more reason for the politicians and the press to be clear on this distinction, not to give in to 'be careful with muhammed'.

If you're accusing me of being racist just fucking say it.

Bazoo, no such thought entered my head. Are you accused of racism regularly?

Yeah I get that Reality having been on a few protests myself.

I just thought it odd that the atrocities carried out in the name of Islam did not feature in the protest.