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Has the BNP taken over the anti-JS:TO protests? Above left is a photo from the Leicester Mercury showing a group of protestors outside the de Montfort Hall. On the right is a group of BNP supporters outside Leeds Crown Court in January, during the trial of Nick Griffin and Mark Collett.

The “Defend Christian Values” banners they are holding are from the self-styled Christian Council of Britain, one of several new BNP offshoots.

From Lancaster Unite Against Fascism blog:

The Christian Council of Britain, replete with one or two hundred rabid members of the BNP (who also happen to be Christians), was set up by the BNP as a so-called balance to the Muslim Council of Britain. They claim to represent the Christians of Britain, which of course, they don’t. They actually represent a racist though supposedly Christian offshoot of the BNP formed solely so that the party could almost-legitimately jump on the back of the anti-‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’ campaign. The real Christian group who actually are organising the campaign have stated clearly that the BNP is unwelcome.

Stephen Green did indeed come out and speak against the BNP involvement in the anti-Springer campaign, eventually. But if the Leicester Mercury photo is representative, the very least we can deduce is that they are good at distributing their banners.

UPDATE: Bartholomew has more on the CCB.

The March issue of the UK’s secular-humanist monthly, The Freethinker, is a “religious cartoons special edition”, featuring several Mo-toon fever inspired cartoons, a couple of Jesus-on-the-cross funnies, Jesus and Mo, one of the original “Danish twelve” (the “ran out of virgins” one – “turban bomb” and “horn head” were reprinted in the November 2005 issue, to a noticeable absence of outrage), and articles by Irshad Manji and Ibn Warraq, among other things.

The other side of the argument is also presented. Shaykh Riyad Nadwion’s It’s a Question of Love, Newsnight, not Fear! is reproduced from the MCB’s website. Plus some of Irshad Manji’s hate mail for good measure.

According to the BBC, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced that there are grounds to arrest the Feb 3 Mo-toon protestors. The demo outside the Danish embassy, organised by the nutcases of al Ghurabaa’, included people holding placards calling for the murder of cartoonists. Arrests will be made “in the near future”.

BEHEAD THOSE WHO SAY ISLAM IS VIOLENT was not seen on any placards, unfortunately. But DOWN WITH FREEDOM OF SPEECH was. Which is just as funny, in its own way.

(Tipped from PP)

Any MWW readers based in or near Manchester up for a bit of fun later this month please contact me by email.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Lady Kishwer Falkner has spoken of the need for British Muslims to develop “broader shoulders” when it comes to issues of free speech. A Muslim herself, she said:

I would say to my community we have to become more broad shouldered. We have to become more tolerant. We have to learn the art of peaceful dissent.

She also called on Germany and Austria to repeal their holocaust-denial laws, which were out of place in “mature and confident democracies”, and for the UK to scrap the blasphemy law.

Lib Dem human rights spokesman MP Evan Harris echoed her sentiments:

If you don’t want to read The Satanic Verses don’t buy the book. If you don’t want to watch Jerry Springer the Opera on the BBC switch channels.

If you don’t want to read cartoons in a Danish newspaper, don’t go to Denmark and buy those newspapers.

Other Lib Dems uttering words of reason yesterday included MEP Sajj Karim (re publishing the Mo-Toons: “We as a party must defend the editors’ right to make that judgement call at all costs”), and Alistair Carmichael (“There is no such thing as freedom not be offended”).

Music. Sweet music.

Mark Fisher at The Scotsman has penned a hilarious opinion piece on Jerry Springer: The Opera which contains more wit and intelligence in a few paragraphs than could be found in the combined brainpower of the entire membership of Christian Voice. With choice quotes from various people involved in the production including several Christian defenders of the show, the whole thing is well worth a read.

GENTLE reader, sorry to intrude on your Sunday breakfast, but it is our duty to deliver some distasteful news. Jerry Springer the Opera is returning to these parts and the very fabric of our society is once more under threat. You will understand, of course, that this wasn’t always the case. When the self-styled “operical” played to sell-out audiences of 800 a day at the Assembly Rooms during the Edinburgh Fringe of 2002, we were not to know the mortal danger we were in.

In a move sure to infuriate Stephen “Dog Shit” Green and his Christian Voice chums the Broadcasting Press Guild has nominated Jerry Springer: The Opera in the best single drama category. It is up against The Government Inspector, A Very Social Secretary, and Much Ado About Nothing.

The awards will be presented at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on March 31.

(From Chortle)

The Brussels Journal has a useful roundup of Mo-toon news. Apparently one or more of the original 12 Mo-toons have been published in 143 newspapers in 56 countries around the globe, with the French press being the most prolific.

Also, Ahmed Akkari and Ahmed Abu Laban, the Danish imams who started the furore by touring the Middle East with the 12 cartoons (plus three additional drawings which were never published), have been reported to the police so many times that the Danish police force has issued a public statement politely requesting that no more reports be sent in.

The Deputy Prime Minister agrees with Anders Fogh Rasmunssen that the imams should be investigated:

The Danish flag has now been burned for weeks. What we stand for has been walked over. When this has blown over I want the preconditions for the presence of imams [in Denmark] examined. There are a number of issues which we need to look into. I find it outrageous that people whom we have allowed to stay in our country, go about and harm the country in this way.

Looks like those boys are in trouble.

Mo-toon fever took a bizarre and disturbing turn yesterday when about 5,000 children marched through Karachi chanting “Hang those who insulted the prophet”.

The tiny demonstrators, aged mostly between five and twelve years old, had been bussed in from local schools and madrassas. An effigy of the Prime Minister of Denmark was burnt, as were plywood coffins emblazoned with the US, Danish and – predictably – Israeli flags.