This is not really 'news' of course, because Sir Iqbal Sacranie, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, has said similar kinds of things many times before. As the linked article points out, Sacranie is not the only religious leader who has 'issues' with the laws which have been passed into statute by our democratically elected Parliament.
Naturally, as we live in a free country, I support the right of anyone to say more or less what they think - except that I have just a teensy-weensy problem when someone chooses to indulge in what is pretty clearly skirting dangerously close to hate-speech against a segment of the British population - unfortunately the sad reality is that our laws in the UK do not categorise comments against people because of their sexual orientation as 'hate speech', as they cover only comments relating to race - that is perfectly good, but similar protection needs to be extended to similar bigotry based on sexual orientation.
As to the substance of Sir Iqbal Sacranie's remarks, I must point out to him that we live in a secular, not a theocratic, society. He is free, so far as I am concerned, to believe in the myths put out by whatever 'cult' he chooses, just as believers in other religious 'cults', such as Catholics, are likewise free - just so long as they don't try and inflict their bigotry onto the laws of this country!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Welcome to my comment area. Whilst all comment is welcome you are requested to respect the views of others. To read full terms for use of this facility, please visit my 'Terms of Use' section, linked to under the 'About this Blog' heading at top right of the blog. Note added 12JUL2010 - All comments will now be pre-moderated before they appear in this blog; this is a measure to prevent 'spam' commenting, which has become frequent of late. Thank you.