Those British citizens whose loyalty may be to a state other than the United Kingdom have appeared on the radar of many pundits, after it was revealed that Anjem Choudary was to be released after serving three years of a five and a half year sentence. As the Guardian has reported, “Choudary, 51, is due to be released on licence in October as he approaches the mid-way point of his five-and-a-half year sentence for encouraging Muslims to join Islamic State. He was sentenced in September 2016, having already spent five months in custody”. And those pundits aren’t happy about the news at all.
Iain Dale
One of the most vocal has been LBC host Iain Dale, who has complained “one has to ask why on earth he is being released? Why isn’t he serving his full sentence? You’d have also thought that the Home Secretary or the Justice Secretary could intervene on national security grounds … You’d have thought the prison authorities might be able to find some reason not to release him”. And what has caused this concern?
Dale believes Choudary’s behaviour is treasonous. “We also need to have a debate on whether the offence of treason needs to be reintroduced. It was effectively abolished by Tony Blair at the turn of the century, but can there be any doubt that inciting people to join a foreign terror group and pledge allegiance to an enemy organisation is treasonous?”
No penalty can be too great ... for the twat who just cut my mike off
Why not any terror group, or indeed, any kind of incitement? Because while Dale is looking the wrong way, there is someone practising incitement, alluding to violent civil disobedience, and giving every impression of being loyal to a country other than the UK right under his nose. The potential charge sheet is damning.
Unveiling a poster demonising non-white migrants in a clear effort to incite racial hatred on the same day a sitting MP and prominent Remain campaigner was murdered by a far right bigot. A poster, and campaign, that was reported to the Metropolitan Police. Then claiming that the EU referendum had been won by the Leave side “without a bullet being fired”.
Squeaky rumbled finger up the bum time
Someone who “would ‘don khaki, pick up a rifle and head for the front lines’ if Theresa May fails to deliver Brexit in the fashion he wants”. Nailed-on incitement to civil disobedience. And on top of that, giving the impression that the state to whom he is loyal is not the UK, but the gangster régime of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
That someone is former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. And if what Anjem Choudary has done is treasonable, then what Farage has done is at least as bad. The fact that it does not yet have an actual body count is mere fortuitousness.
(c) Steve Bell 2016
But there will be no restrictions on Farage’s movement, no constraints on his internet access, no penalties for stirring unrest or radicalising others.
If Iain Dale wants to question the loyalties of some of those at large in Britain today, perhaps he could go beyond the Scary Muslims™ to look at the practitioners of hatred who are getting away with it - one of whom is a fellow LBC host.
Hate-mongering is bang out of order. Whoever does it. Even if they’re white.
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2 comments:
I think Farage is mixing up heading for the front line with being at the front in the line for the bar.
Unknown - Farage doesn't strike me as the type to be first at the bar. Last, more like.
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