Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Everyone's favourite charmless bigots, Christian Voice, have popped up again. After their ultimately unsuccesful dabbling in the world of theatre they've turned to being book critics, claiming they'll use the new religious hatred law to prosecute bookshops that sell the Qur'an, claiming that by doing so they are promoting religious hatred.
The only member of Christian Voice ever willing to stick his head above the parapet, possibly their only member, director Stephen Green said "If the Qur'an is not hate speech, I don't know what is. We will report staff who sell it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that unbelievers must be killed." He then went back to throwing stones at glass houses.
I'm not so worried about Islam, it's big enough and ugly enough to take care of itself. I suspect that the religious hatred law is more likely to protect Islam than Stephen Green's crocodile tears of concern. What worries me is that the charmless bigots aren't going to march into battle with Waterstones if this bill is signed. They don't go for battles with people that can afford to fight. They prefer to fight those who cannot afford to fight back. I suspect they'll go after independent bookshops, who lack the resources to see them in court and so get them knocked back. Hopefully if this all comes to pass a bookshop that finds itself in this position will be supported by the nearest local Muslim population.
This also highlights why the religious hatred bill is not such a great idea.
More charmless bigotry.
The only member of Christian Voice ever willing to stick his head above the parapet, possibly their only member, director Stephen Green said "If the Qur'an is not hate speech, I don't know what is. We will report staff who sell it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that unbelievers must be killed." He then went back to throwing stones at glass houses.
I'm not so worried about Islam, it's big enough and ugly enough to take care of itself. I suspect that the religious hatred law is more likely to protect Islam than Stephen Green's crocodile tears of concern. What worries me is that the charmless bigots aren't going to march into battle with Waterstones if this bill is signed. They don't go for battles with people that can afford to fight. They prefer to fight those who cannot afford to fight back. I suspect they'll go after independent bookshops, who lack the resources to see them in court and so get them knocked back. Hopefully if this all comes to pass a bookshop that finds itself in this position will be supported by the nearest local Muslim population.
This also highlights why the religious hatred bill is not such a great idea.
More charmless bigotry.
