Two Wrongs Don't Make a Righteous Crusade

Sitting in my late father's study while I work I'm reminded that both he and my mother taught Religious Education, my mother was actually head of department. One of the things that reminds me is the shelf of books on comparative religions that sits to the right of me as I work.

There is one pile in the middle of that shelf that is all about Islam. Some of those books I have read myself and indeed there are other books in my own collection that are also about Islam including my own copy of the Koran.

Therefore the fact that the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida is planning a 'Burn the Koran Day' for 11 September is a sad indictment. Maybe the American way doesn't teach about other religions and their beliefs in the way that multi-cultural Britain does.

But the blogger Gay Patriot does pose an interesting question:

"How is a Florida church burning the Koran on 9/11 any different than an Islamist-inspired mosque being built in the Ground Zero debris zone?"

In his opinion "None. Both have the right to do it. But it isn't the right thing to do." but I'm going to disagree.

There is a difference. One is a incitement to hatred an act borne out of hatred fundamentalism. The other is trying to foster understanding and normality, showing that fundamentalism isn't all their is in religion.

The former of course is the church in Florida, the second is the Islamic education centre that is looking to be set up in Manhattan.

There are forgotten victims of the 9-11 monstrosity, the innocent Muslim workers in the World Trade Centre. Not the terrorists but those who were working alongside their fellow man in those twin towers. Those who also lost their lives. Their families also come to Ground Zero on 9-11 to remember their dead, they then have to travel far away to find a Mosque that they can offer their prayers up in.

The vast majority or Muslims are not fundamentalists, however there is also a minority of Christians who are fundamentalists. Have any of the members of the Dove World Outreach Center actually opened a Koran to read it? Have any of them ever learnt what it means to be a everyday Muslim? Have any of them ever ventured into a Muslim community or lived alongside a Muslim community day to day to see them going about their lives?

Fighting fundamentalism with fundamentalism is not the way to go, that leads to religious wars, to crusades or jihad. It is just what this intolerance is, even the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls it 'disrespectful and disgraceful'.



With freedom of speech comes responsibility, as I was rewatching Footloose last night I was reminded of John Lithgow's character the Pastor coming upon a book burning outside the school. He said:

"It is not the words in there that are bad, it's what's in here." (tapping on his heart)

Maybe that is the salient lesson for those in Florida to look first into themselves.

Proud to be a Politico

I'm proud to be referred to a Politico, it is a word that predates the Internet, one quick Internet search shows it appears in Webster's dictionary in 1913. In the UK there are Labour politicos, Lib Dem Politicos, Green Politicos and Tory Politicos.

One of the latter is of course Tory Politico but heaven forbid that the might of corporate legislative America should claim that a word in common parlance should be copyrighted and used exclusively by them. But that is what they have done to Tory Politico.

I note that this company claiming copyright has a Wikipedia page which states that they were founded on 27 January 2007. Now forgive me if I'm wrong but I seem to recall Tory Politco being around before that. I know blogs come and go and the old memory of who started when is a little shady.

Their lawyers claims that unsurprising for an English language blog based in the UK that the second most populous country for hits is the USA. Well I dare any UK blog to check their hits and prove otherwise, unless they specialise in Australia or Canadian subjects of interest. For each month I've been tracking the USA is my second most common country of traffic origin, I'm glad the American's have taste and some of them check out UK angles on US stories.

The also claim that Tory Politico's template is similar to theirs.

Let me see:

• Header Check although Tory Politico uses larger font and centres his title
  
• List of stories Check but then we all do that
  
• Sidebar right Check but then we all do that (or should) for Mobile viewing
• Colours red, white and blue Check watch out Union Flag you're next with your colour scheme
• Ads Not Check yeah Tory Politico is ad free but they are all over the Politico

I'm sorry that anyone thinks that Americans are stupid enough to confuse Tory Politico's reporting of UK politics with The Politico's reporting of US politics. I would have thought that the lack of daily Obama stories, congressional race intrigue or Senate Filibusters may have been a give away. Facing attacks on Gordon Brown or praise for David Cameron may just have given that away.

Tory Politico is standing his ground to use a word of Italian and Spanish origin that some US ENGLISH blog claims is their word. This blog stand shoulder to should with them. The NFL earlier this week almost tried to imposed image rights on the fleur-de-lys after the Freedom Fries the French would have been bombing NFL HQ.

UPDATE I noticed that someone on TP's comments has spotted that Politoco's (oops sorry that is Iain Dale's trademank) the lawyer of Politoco is called Dow Lohnes, maybe we should all alert the New York Stock Exchange that someone is using a name very similar to their index to add gravitas to their stupudity.

Hat tip to Iain Dale.

Officious Police Halt Mr Gay China

The other day I post about the potential opening up of China with the arrival of the Mr Gay China Pageant.

Guess what?

The event that was due to start today has been shut down by the Chinese police. As the Guardian article concluded on Tuesday:

"Officials could show up and say 'your fire hydrant is in the wrong place. It is still a sensitive issue."

So today they did indeed turn up and said the event had not followed the "correct procedures", such a 'clear' reason of what is wrong is obviously difficult for organisers to appease the officials. I hope that Google.cn make this a special icon on their front page.

So the country that only decriminalised homosexuality 13 years ago and declassified it as a mental condition 9 years ago has either found a fire hydrant in the wrong place, a wrong date on a piece of paper work, or chairs no aligned in the right way as a reason to halt this step forward.

Keep out of My Face......book Jacqui

In my past I have had a KGB, Securitate and Stazzi file. Some of them must have been an interesting read.

The KGB file must have mentioned my visits to a youth detention centre, a prison, several hospitals, the local fire station, orphanages and my association with non-state registered Christians and giving two red guards a lift in our team minibus. The Securitate file may well detail all the contents of my suitcase that was forced open at Bucharest airport on the way to a school ski trip, the Sunday Times article on Nicolae Caucescu I'd avidly read on the flight over along with the rest of the magazine as I doubted even before being told that I'd not get that into the country.

However, none of those would be as anything compared to the file that this government must be compiling on me. Forget the fact that the majority of my daily emails on my work account are of a proprietary nature and the government could be sued under US law if my employer were so inclined. Forget the fact that as a result the government will know just where I will be campaigning, have the minutes of local party execs and who is feeding me information for my blog.

Now they want to access my social networks. Circumventing the privacy settings that I set up so that only certain people can see certain bits of that. Not you understand for terrorist ends but because they are private and not to be broadcast to the world. They want to know who I flirt with, what gifts I've been sent, what I think of the thought for the day. I have friends on Facebook in all political parties.

Do they really need to know how Iain Dale makes me blush? What Lord Faulkes's right hand woman Kezia Dugadale is saying to me? Or how one of my Nat supporting fellow Livingston fans is tackling me on the issue of the day?

What about my Northern Irish friends? Two of whom at least have relatives that have been in prison for terrorist activities. Is the fact that I am friends with them making me guilty by association?

What about our elected representatives on Facebook? Many of them use it as a tool to reach there constituents, one has even held an online surgery through the medium. Surely such communication between an MP, MSP, AM, MLA or Cllr and their constituent being held on such a database is a breach of confidentiality and guidelines.

Jacqui 'Big Sister' Smith is taking a knee jerk reaction, one that doesn't take into account the consequences of her actions. If you want to read my emails, if you want to see my Facebook, MySpace, Bebo or anywhere else details come to me with a warrant, the same goes for everyone else. If you have a suspicion against me go the whole hog.

Don't leave me naked and exposed with no privacy and the chance of having my details being exposed without my knowledge or consent by storing them on a third party data base on an off chance that I am one of the 3,000 suspects you think are in this country.

Carnival on Modern Liberty: No Freedom of Speech = No Public Liberty

When the Labour Government first banned protesters in Parliament some people didn't think it would infringe too much on this countries freedom of speech. Under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all people have "the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression".

No while I don't agree with the views of Geert Wilders nor the views of Fred Phelps of Westboro Church and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper the fact is that both Wilders and now the Phelpses have been denied entry to the UK. They have been denied the right to express themselves. However, as with Geert Wilders last week this may get their message across more clearly and louder than if they have been allowed in.

John Stuart Mill in On Liberty wrote:

"The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."

So Jacqui Smith has twice in a week performed just such a peculiar evil of denying the ability to have discourse to unearth the error in that opinion.

Maybe Wilders in right when he called the UK government cowards for refusing his entry. But as with Derek Draper's LabourList diatribe in recent weeks it appears to be the Labour default position. As position to ban any who don't agree with what you say instead of engaging in debate. It is also generally the default position of those for whom the argument is lost to want to avoid debate at any cost. Is that where Labour is?

Benjamin Franklin said:

"Without Freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech."

Sadly now that we cannot take pictures of the police or things that may be considered useful for terrorism our liberties are being eroded. With the Labour government and its apologists trying to control what can be said or blogged we are heading to a dark place devoid of public liberty.

They can watch you, want to read your emails and keep you biometric data. But you are not allowed to come to your own conclusions, think with you own brain or possible go about your business without proving you are you. The liberties we once held dear are going, going....

Does this mean the terrorists have won because are Government and Labour are too scared to let anything go on that might give them opportunity. And the price? Our liberty.