|
by Douglas Murray
• November 26, 2016 at 5:00 am
- Tommy Robinson
has not been -- as Choudary was -- at the heart of a nexus of
terrorists and terrorist-supporters going back years. He has not
been on friendly terms with numerous people who have beheaded
civilians and carried out suicide bombings.
- Robinson is in
an exceptionally unfortunate position. He is not a radical Islamist
and nor is he from any discernible minority. He is a white
working-class man who, it appears, can thus not only be harassed by
certain authorities with impunity, but can find few if any defenders
of his rights among the vast panoply of people in in our societies
who are only too keen to defend the rights of Islamists.
- Civil liberties
groups such as "Liberty," which are so stringent in
protecting the rights of Islamist groups such as "Cage,"
are silent on the case of Tommy Robinson.
Unlike Anjem Choudary (left), who was at the heart of
a nexus of terrorists and terrorist-supporters, Tommy Robinson (right) is
a white working-class man who can not only be harassed by police and
other authorities with impunity, but can find few if any defenders of his
rights among the vast panoply of people in our societies who are only too
keen to defend the rights of Islamists.
So farewell, then, Anjem Choudary. For two and half years at least.
On September 6, the radical cleric was sentenced by a British judge to
five and a half years in prison for encouraging people to join the
Islamic State. If he behaves himself in prison he could be out in half
that time, although whenever he emerges, it is unlikely that it will be
as a reformed character. But the law has taken its course and in a
rule-bound society has responded in the way that a rule-bound society
ought to behave -- by the following due process. So it is useful to
compare the experience of Anjem Choudary and the way in which the state
has responded to him with the way in which it has responded to another
person.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment