Thursday, February 12, 2009

Inciting Hatred

Geert Wilders and free speech is a big issue to which I will return when my anger cools.
Inciting hatred; that's why he was banned from the UK.
This whole "incitement" thing is quite terrifying. We (you, me, anyone) can be locked up for "inciting hatred". Does this absolve the person so incited from any guilt? In every other crime I can think of there is a felon and a victim. With this one the felon might be a Dutch guy with a bad haircut walking through Heathrow and the victim might be a bomber on a bus in Camden who gets his place with the angels along with 52 bored commuters. I don't get it. Our "inciting" laws make the person who can't control his hatred legally innocent of the crime of hating. Any number of things get me boiling, but I don't take it out on anyone else. Presumably, we can claim "he made me do it Guv" for a vast range of atrocities.
If you look at it a bit closer you might get a bit suspicious. I've heard rappers come out with all kinds of blasphemy, misogyny and hate but they are protected by their "kulcha". I hear Islamic clerics spouting venom at all things British, hiding behind the laws of this land. Can these people not "incite racial hatred"?
It appears not.

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