it seems like you get a death sentence in the western world if you dare to criticize aspects of the Islamic faith in Sweden this man who admittedly took things to the absolute extreme in a bid to make his feelings known regularly burnt copies of the Quran last night he was shot dead in his apartment now I don't condone setting fire to copies of the Quran and I absolutely see how that could cause anger but just think about this if somebody set fire to a copy of the Bible or the Torah would they be shot dead
in their own home I suspect not in France teacher Samuel Patti was falsely accused of showing obscene pictures of the Prophet Muhammad to school children that was a lie a girl who wasn't even in his class at the time made it up he was beheaded in the street by an islamist before that we had Charlie hebdo didn't we they ran a cartoon with the prophet Muhammad on their front cover then this happened 12 people were killed because of that front cover we all know know about the battley grammar school incident where a teacher remains in
police hiding with his family after allegedly showing a picture of the Prophet to some kids and people gathered outside the school Gates calling for his blood there was a mob outside that school four days the incident from Monday 22nd of March must also be investigated from a criminal perspective yes given that it was a clear attempt to stir up religious hatred we also use this opportunity to call upon the entire British Muslim Community to review the materials being taught in their children's schools now I do wonder if a teacher had said something that Jewish or
Christian students found offensive or made a joke about one of the Hindu gods whether they'd have received death threats and been forced into hiding for the rest of their lives and then there was the autistic child who accidentally scuffed a copy of the Quran at school he also received death threats and his mom had to go to the local Islamic Center and beg for forgiveness have to call the police he has received death threats he has received threats that he will be beaten up if he goes back to school he's absolutely petrified um but I
don't want anybody to be prosecuted yet again I'll ask if a copy of the Bible have been scuffed would we have seen the parents of a hypothetical Muslim child forced into a church to beg for their child's life I doubt it it does appear to be a potential death sentence if you do something even accidentally that offend certain elements of the Muslim Community I wonder whether that's why this is allowed or even why this is allowed but this is not allowed a Christian woman praying silently in her own head outside an abortion clinic that's why
is you standing to be part of a protest no I'm not protesting are you praying I might be praying in my head um so I'll ask you once more will you voluntarily come with us now to the police station me to ask you some questions about today and other days where there are allegations that you've broken public space of PR if I've got a choice then no I wonder if that fear of being put on some kind of Hit List is why police seem to bend over backwards to please some aspects of the Muslim Community
Salam alak there is one tier of policing that implies to all of us and that means that we police without fear or favor sh would police ever ask for permission from the Elders to address a Christian audience as indeed another police officer did at that time as well again I doubt it and if a group of Jewish people attacked a police station or even let's just say a group of football fans would you not expect the police to come out and deal with them with Force well over to Roch down now we saw you we
know you're in there come out explain yourself why is only one officer being suspended what about the rest of them I don't think the particular community in that clip got in much trouble why not look I don't think anyone should go out and set fire to a copy of the Quran or needlessly offend Muslims all be islamophobic but what I am saying is there appears to be only one religion in Europe where you might be shot stabbed or beheaded if you cause offense to some of its followers let's get a thoughts of my panel this
evening we've got uh formator MP Anna fth we've got Lord Bailey and we have also got ex- labor party adviser Matthew lza Anor I'll start with you on this do you think that basically we now have a situation possibly have had for some while where if if you do offend aspects of the Islamic community it's a death sentence Well I obviously do think that because s David Amos who I succeeded he was actually butchered by an Islamic extremist not because he offended the Islamic religion because of how he voted against Syria and the the extremist
who murdered him said that he had listened to the uh the ranting things of Abu Muhammad al-ani the Syrian Isis leader who had made speech after speech and that was the first time that that followers um of of of the of Islam were actually instructed in his first speech to go and and kill non-muslims in non-muslim countries so yes we absolutely do have a problem and we've discussed many times the prevent program and Shore cross's review which has pointed out that 67 % of Terror incidents from 2018 to today were due to Islamic extremism and
it occupies three qus of mi5's uh workload so yes of course we've got we've got an issue and we need to it's integration we have got to deal with this again I will stress I have believe it or not everybody I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go and set fire to a copy of the Quran that man did okay and I can understand why that's inflammatory however he did get shot to death for it and it does appear as though that is a kind of reaction that seems to be happening quite a bit whether
you're beheaded or or or whatever if you offend Islam what do you make of that Sean look I'm a card Karen Christian so the idea of burning the Bible to me is very offensive but what's what needs to be looked at here is what reaction does it cause and what is that Community asked to do in response and what did the police do in response one of the things that's beginning to generate Community tension is the idea that certain people get dealt with in different ways that's where the authorities have to step up and make
sure that everybody's dealt with the same what's happened in Sweden of course is illegal it it was illegal before it will remain illegal but now it's how it's dealt with but here in this country the authorities have to really be able to put their hand on their heart and say actually we don't deal with people differently because they're from a different religion because when he looked at the marches we had in London that caused Great consternation in many other communities CU it looked like there wasn't a fair hand being dealt and that's a question we
need to answer here do you think there's an aspect of fear that grips our political institutions our police force maybe our education system as well Matthew when it comes to you know basically in this country you can say or do what you like when it comes to other religions but if you criticize Islam is a death sentence well I think that has been historically I think that the left didn't cover itself in glory in the late 80s with the satanics versus Affair when Salon Rush's book uh was being burned on the streets of Bradford and
sort of left liberal apologists for that at the time uh were pretty disgraceful I think there have obviously been isolated examples of that uh since but I think that uh uh I think actually partly because of things we talked about on this SAA just last week about the grooming gangs Etc I think people have now said that we must be honest about what's happening in communities whatever the community is um and we shouldn't Pander to any Community but we showing respect for all communities the shame is it took so long and we've had so many
terrible incidences to get to this point and I really want to reflect on the police's behavior and politicians Behavior certain politicians behave that way because they don't want to lose the vote other politicians because they don't want to create Community tensions we had a police officer in London who who was in a Chris cover case who was investigated um in a very particular way in an extraordinary way because it might cause Community tension that is not the way to deal with something we have a legal system and we need to follow those absolutely do you
think do you think you should be able to burn a copy of the Quran uh do you think it's something that should be allowed to happen or is it a crime should it be a crime what do you think look look I I believe in freedom of expression you know it's it's a basic human right um we we live by that in this country I would not burn a of the Quan but if someone were to burn a cop I'm a Christian as well but if someone were to burn a copy of the Bible I
would consider that to be deeply disrespectful extremely rude I would not want anyone but I would not expect it's not even that wouldn't be even be an offense here's the thing here's the thing here's the thing that wouldn't cross most Muslim the vast vast majority of Muslim people wouldn't jump out the house and come and murder you or even or even come and Shout you over it but but some would and more than in most communities the important thing here though even as a car card carrying Christian I don't believe it should be illegal to
burn a Quran a a Bible or a Torah or a humanist book for that matter because it would lead to a blasphemy law and that would put us in a far bigger problem we don't we don't have blasphemy laws in this country and I and I think that's for a reason but we we're missing the point here there's no other religion that consistently leads to these violent attacks is that fair Matthew well I think um clearly partly because of geopolitical issues which have involved the Middle East Muslim areas of the world more more more than
others I think we have seen particular sort of tensions and anger within the Muslim Community frankly over a period that stretches back uh to the Iraq War uh 20 odd years ago I say what I do think just watching the footage that we saw earlier is uh I do whoever the community leaders are I hate that phrase Community leaders and what you see is not the police talking to ordinary Muslims but sort of doing a little video to keep people who are on their Community Relations Committee happy and I don't like that at all and
and and we shouldn't be having that need to just just step back and and police all not Community leaders there are no Community leaders they they're always and they're always the most militant and that's the problem if if you if you panda to the militant they become more militant not less not just Community leaders what about Abu Hamza what about am Jan chalry you know the hate clerics that we have had unfortunately we we've got rid of them why have they all come from this religion the thing is I put this to you mat I
I think it's becoming increasingly obvious these days when you see stories like that you just do a compare and contrast don't you the autistic child who scuffed a copy of the Quran at school and his mom is you know there in the local Islamic Center basically saying look he's had death threats please don't please don't let any harm H come to him but I don't want anyone prosecuted for anything they might have said in the meantime and you just have to flip that on its head if he gone into school and done something ripped a
page out of the Bible or there's no way in a million years that ends up in a I think it's the walking on it's the walking on eggshells isn't it and I don't think I don't any good comes to walking on eggshells as or talking to community leaders they rather in the same bracket and I think that people need to to relax they need to realize that if people from a particular if they if they're if they're angry about something what they're saying is out of order just because they're from a from one Community they
shouldn't be um excused I I think it's what we do about is actually the police and and politicians and the Press grow a pair and take people on because what happens is again I go back to point if you keep appeasing people I mean we should learn this for the whole second world war situation you keep appeasing people they keep pushing give them an inch they take a mile and we are in that we are in that situation and police officers now senior police officers not a beat officer right could they really put their hand
on their heart and say well we dealt with that the same even though even though it was a particular religion that's terrified yeah terrified and then they end up doing silly things as they're walking on X show perfect example Patrick you mentioned it in your in your opening the Batley grammar school now imagine if a teacher had put a cartoon of Jesus Christ we've had we've had those sorts of yes exactly I saw that I watched that in school I watched The Life of Brian in school now I remember Life of Brian shows and I
remember my mother not being at all happy about me seeing that because at that stage it was considered to be quite offensive it was pushing the envelope but but we're we we accept that because we're a tolerant country we should have the same rules for everybody if you put a if you put a c that that teacher should not have been hounded out of that school he should not have been having technically technically do this is this is the point technically we do have the same rules for everybody let's be clear about that what we
don't have is the same culture when we deal with people around we have a cult because of nervous and that's what needs to go like even if you talk about people smuggling they've made some new rules about boat pieces and that's not the issue the issue is enforcing the laws we already have all right well look good I do quite enjoy actually when it's more it's more of a discussion but we'll have plenty of opportunity to have counter stopic there we go
