Every now and again, along comes a case that shows the law, or rather in this instance, specific laws, to be an ass. The following case shows very starkly the utter and complete ludicrousness of Britain’s ‘hate speech’ laws. It also shows how ‘hate speech’ laws brought in by the last, and largely unlamented Labour government, are chipping away at Britain’s freedom of speech.

Following the attack on Brussels, which is the latest in a very long line of Islamic atrocities; Matthew Doyle asked a Muslim woman in Croydon to explain to him the Islamic motivation behind the jihadist attacks on that city. The woman allegedly said ‘It’s nothing to do with me’, a comment that many non-Muslims may disagree with, on the grounds that the random Muslim supports and adheres to the same ideology as followed by the Brussels attackers.

Mr Doyle put the woman’s comment on his Twitter feed. I can see no issue of hate speech or ill intent here, people in other groups are often asked to justify or explain controversial events that members of those groups have been involved in. To give an example, Jews are sometimes asked to justify or explain the self-defence activities of the Israeli government. I’ve lost count of the times that ill-informed non-Jews have asked me questions about the Israeli government’s ongoing war against the genocidal headcases of Hamas. However, in these situations I’ve explained my position, and my view of the issue, and most of the time that has resolved the matter. Occasionally I’ve come across people who are so fixed on their, in my opinion, wrong headed, view of the Israel / Hamas conflict, that I’ve just not bothered to speak to them again. Sometimes you have to take the view that you can’t fix stupid no matter how hard you try. One thing I would not do is run crying and screaming to the police, claiming that I was offended or racially abused by someone else’s opinion.

Unfortunately, running crying and screaming to the police claiming that she was ‘offended’ is just what this Muslim woman did. In a free and fair country the police would and should have told this woman to ‘go forth and multiply’, or ‘f**k right off’ if you want to put in more plain language. Sadly, this being Britain, this is not what happened and police caught up with Mr Doyle and arrested him.

Here’s the Sky News report on the arrest. As is usual policy for this blog, the original text is in italics and my comments are in plain text.

Sky News said:

“A man who posted a Twitter message about confronting a Muslim woman over the Brussels terror attacks has been arrested by police.

Matthew Doyle is being questioned on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after the purported encounter in Croydon, south London.

Firstly, I need to say again “what ‘race’ is Islam?” The last time I looked there were lists of different racial types, caucasoid, negroid, mongoloid, australoid, but I can’t for the life of me find one called ‘Islamoid’. I don’t know who to be most disgusted with first? Do I feel primarily disgusted with the thin-skinned, hair trigger offence-taking of the Muslim woman, or do I concentrate on the Metropolitan Police’s eagerness to appease Islam? The answer is to be disgusted at both. However, the police’s behaviour on this issue is particularly worrying. The Metropolitan Police’s descent into pro-Islam madness is writ large when it comes to this case. It will do nothing to shake the growing perception that there is a double standard of justice in the UK, with Muslims allowed to say whatever they want, no matter how hateful or how likely it is to incite violence. The fact that Mr Doyle has been arrested for something that is basically bad manners but which no reasonable person would consider a criminal offence, shows those perceptions to have a large element of truth. It is indeed a double standard when Muslims can foment hate about just about anyone they want but those non-Muslims who criticise that hatefulness end up in the police cells or prison. The Metropolitan police have made themselves look like appeasing twats over this issue which could have been resolved by giving Mr Doyle some quiet words of advice. Even better the police should just have butted out of the whole situation and told the Muslim woman to grow up, find some backbone and reminded her that Britain allows freedom of debate over religion.

A message posted on his Twitter page on Wednesday morning said: “I confronted a Muslim woman yesterday in Croydon. I asked her to explain Brussels. She said ‘Nothing to do with me’. A mealy mouthed reply.”

The tweet went viral and was widely mocked on Twitter, with many users choosing to parody it.

Arrests like that of Mr Doyle should be mocked, and mocked as widely as possible. I do hope that this whining Muslim woman’s identity is leaked or revealed and she gets to hear directly, but politely I might add, just how disgusted many of us are with her attempt to shut down Mr Doyle’s right to speak freely.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said on Wednesday: “We have arrested a 46-year-old man on suspicion of inciting racial hatred on social media.

“He was arrested tonight at an address in Croydon and remains in custody at a south London police station.”

The Metropolitan Police may have placated the anger of one Muslim woman, but by arresting Mr Doyle they have ensured that a great many of us will withdraw even more trust from them, than we have done already.

This case shows exactly what is wrong with the whole concept of hate speech and hate crime laws. They may have been brought in for all the right reasons but they are having a devastating effect on freedom of speech and equality of justice. Hate speech laws have created an environment where one group has more right to speak than others and where one group gets treated differently by the the courts than another group would be.

There are those who say that before hate speech laws came in there was no redress for racial bullying but protecting a few people from being racially bullied by shutting down everyone else’s right to speak is not a good exchange. It’s far too high a price for our society and our nation to pay.

Hate speech laws have created a society that a feminist commentator and member of the UK PEGIDA leadership, Anne Marie Waters, has described as ‘screwed’. If we are ‘screwed’ as a nation now, then it will get even worse unless we dump into the dustbin of legislation this badly thought out and equally badly implemented hate speech and hate crime legislation.

Link

Original story from Sky News

http://news.sky.com/story/1665982/man-arrested-for-explain-brussels-tweet