Sacranie gets his collar felt
Sir Idiot Sacranie is being investigated by the police for his comments on Radio 4 about homosexuality being “harmful” and “not acceptable”.
Before the investigation he had already expressed his surprise at the reaction his comments provoked:
What amazes us is this concerted attempt to silence views we believe we are articulating for quite a large section of society.
Here at MWW we are against any attempts to silence views, no matter how large the section of society they are shared by. However, Sacranie is one of the major lobbyists campaigning for the Incitement to Religious Hatred law.
If we took Sacranie’s homophobic diatribe and substituted the word “Islam” for “homosexuality”, then the proposed Incitement to Religious Hatred law, if it was in force, would mean Sir Idiot could be put away for seven years.
In the recent MCB press release on the subject, it says
Sir Iqbal said it was in the nature of a democratic society to permit dissent.
Maybe this police investigation (which will come to nothing), will give him a taste of what a society which does not permit dissent is like.
In the Radio 4 interview, he also said
We have an opportunity to express our views. This is what we have, this is the privilege we have living in an open democratic society.
Learn it, Iqbal.
I say let Sacraine have his views on homosexuality. Don’t prosecute him! But I wonder if he will afford free speech to those who criticise Islam.
Given his record I doubt it!
If Sir Idiot (I like that, wonder if we can do something involving that and Google) complains about this, then he reveals himself to be a hypocrite, as this is exactly the sort of thing he wishes to happen to those who criticse Islam.
It won’t come to anything, I seem to recall that one of the police forces Stephen Green sent one of his diatribes to investigated him for a hate crime, and nothing ever came of it.
That sounds like a googlebomb that will explode very quickly… Sir Idiot Sacranie
[…] MediaWatchWatch notes that Sir Idiot Sacranie is being investigated by police for saying that homosexuality was “harmful”. […]
This is a guy is a pure hypocrite.
Perhaps we should start asking the police to investigate ANY muslim blackmailer (sorry, menat preacher, there) who expresses the statement in the “Recital” (Koran) that ….”Women are inferior to me, and subject to their orders. If your women disobey you, send them to their quarters and beat them.”
Could we get lucky?
I’m with some of the comments here and feel that we shouldn’t call for Sacranie’s right to free speech to be curtailed. I write as one of the vile, diseased individuals he speaks of so eloquently, too. Once we start to curb his free speech, it won’t be long before our own is curbed likewise (as many are trying to do). While we’re fighting this religious-hatred shite, we don’t want any chance of being called hypocrites ourselves (whether we’re coming from the gay community, the gay secularist community or the secularist community in general).
Agree absolutely, Mr. Andy A. Sir (“the ‘C’ is silent”, as the old saying goes) Idiot Sacranie holds views which are patently irrational, homophobic, sexist, demonstably scientifically wrong, etc,etc, but he should be free to express them. As should we to call him Idiot Sacranie, and point out the ridiculousness of the supernatural assumptions he calls on to support his views.
But then I like G. Tingey’s idea, too. Is there any scope for civil action to be raised in a case of incitement to commit an offence? Anyone know any secular/non-theist lawyers who might be interested in a bit of personal publicity-seeking? 🙂
Would Mr. Sacaranie agree that we should be free to criticise Islam, (along with other religions) as being harmful, in the same way as he wants to be free to criticise homosexuality ?
Or does believe that it is only speech HE agrees with which should be free ?
Whether or not the police go ahead with a prosecution probably doesn’t matter. If I understand it correctly, even if they don’t they’ll probably have to issue a caution, which has the effect that if he repeats the offence he’s in court without the defence that he didn’t know he was breaking the law, therefore more likely to be found guilty and to get the maximum sentence.
That said, I’d have to support his right to express a view -though there’s a distinction to make between expressing a view in a roughly equal debate (which is what we want in an ideal world) and abusing an influential position to encourage someone to commmit a serious crime, such as GBH, arson or murder(which is what can happen in the less than ideal one we live in). Not sure where the border is between those two, but I’d say the key thing would be could you prove an intent to encourage the violence, or on the other hand (addressing the G. Tingey point)couldn’t it also be argued that a ‘holy man’ has a moral duty to prevent abuse of women, etc. if he knows ‘misinterpretation’ of the Koran or Bible has that effect? With law, you generally get what you pay for, but I’d say a better way to stop the nonsense is to point to the immorality of the religious bigot, thus pulling them off their moral high horse.
freedom of expression !!!!!!!!?????????? it’s a kinda of a word play , do u think insutling someone who considered 2 b a prophet and there r more than 1000 millions believe in him is a freedom of expression!!!??? what if i draw a picture of the preisdent of Norewig while he is fuckin his damn mother do u think it’s a kinda of freedom expression ??? let’s say it’s a freedom of expression why we can’t c such pictures for the pope of Vatican why we can’t c such picturse of Jesus nor Moses on their magzines . IT’S NOT A FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION THEY HATE ISLAM
[…] The CCB was formed as a counterpoint to the Muslim Council of Britain, which has also claimed to support free speech, when Iqbal Sacranie was questioned by the police after his comments against gay marriage on Radio 4 back in January, and has also campaigned for censorship, with reagrds to to Mo-toons. So the CCB and MCB have at least one thing in common: Hypocrisy. andrew @ 4:02 pm […]