Kicking the post modern censors

Posted on By pukeko

This is getting totally ridiculous. You cannot even quote. Even if the quote was by a clear eyed statesman. Even if the quote is ancient. No matter, it is hate speech, and it only takes one person to be offended to make it a threat point.

Paul Weston, chairman of the party Liberty GB and a candidate in the European elections, was arrested on suspicion of racial harrassment after reading Winston Churchill’s comments on Islam during a campaign speech. A member of the public took offence at the quote, taken from Churchill’s The River War and called police.

The passage from the book, written by the wartime Prime Minister and first published in 1899, focuses on Churchill’s observations about Islam while serving during the Anglo-Egyptian re-conquest of the Sudan.

Mr. Weston told his audience: ‘Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. ‘No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.’
Police officers arrested Mr Weston, mid-speech, for failing to comply with their request to move on under the powers of a dispersal order made against him. He was further arrested on suspicion of religious or racial harassment.

As reported in the Daily Mail, a woman in the crowd asked Mr Weston if he had the authorization to make this speech. When he answered that he didn’t, she told him, “It’s disgusting,” and then called the police. Six or seven officers arrived. They talked with the people standing nearby, asking questions about what had happened. ‘The police had a long discussion with Mr Weston, lasting about 40 minutes. Ultimately he was arrested. They searched him, put him in a police van and took him away.

This is during a campaign. What happened to freedom of speech? The correct response to blackshirts (when Moseley ran them) was to counter demonstrate, with fists if necessary. But it now appears the censorious blackshirts have police commissions.

There is more to life than words. If we are worried about what we are being called, rather that what we can do to improve our lives, we are being fools. Unfortunately, most of our leaders are precisely that.