On Sunday hundreds, possibly thousands, of supporters of Osama bin Laden will be allowed to demonstrate in Trafalgar Square.
The police say there is nothing they can do to prevent it, despite objections from everyone from the Board of Deputies of British Jews to the Mayor of London.
Red Ken must be growing up. Not so long ago he’d have been one of the main speakers on the platform.
Maybe he just figures that since he deliberately buggered up the traffic lights none of the demonstrators will make it into central London anyway.
It’ll take more than Ken’s congestion scheme to keep these fanatics away. But the Met is worried that if it tries to stop the demo it will inflame moderate Muslim opinion.
Why would moderate Muslims be in the slightest bit offended?
Islam is a tolerant, peace-loving religion, we keep being told.
So why would any decent Muslim object to the police preventing a rally by disciples of an insane, bloodthirsty, racist mass- murderer?
The answer is: they wouldn’t, not according to Inayat Bunglawala, of The Muslim Council of Britain. So why is this disgusting carnival of race hate being allowed to take place?
The Met argue that their hands are tied. The evidence simply isn’t there. Have they examined the website of Al- Muhajiroun, the organisation behind the rally?
It celebrates the September 11 attacks and wallows in the blood of the victims.
It peddles hatred against Israel and the West and calls on all Muslims to support jihad — holy war.
What about some of the main players like Captain Hook, from Finsbury Park and self-styled “sheikh” Omar Bakri Mohammed?
They make no secret of their venom against Jews and Christianity. Last week leaders of Al-Muhajiroun warned Britain to expect September 11-style attacks.
If it walks like a terrorist and talks like a terrorist, it’s a terrorist.
There is a case for revoking their British citizenships. Yet the police continue to argue that their activities are within the law.
I have some sympathy with Scotland Yard. If they gave Captain Hook a tug or tried to kick Sheik Rattle ’n’ Roll out of the country the “human rights” gang would be all over them, no doubt with the Wicked Witch leading the posse with the scent of a legal aid bounty in her nostrils.
But they could have applied to Home Secretary David Blunkett for a banning order. And didn’t. Why not? Why is Muslim extremism above the law?
Any half-competent brief could make a case against Captain Hook and his cronies for incitement to racial hatred. What about behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace?
This is, after all, a country in which Annie Robinson can be investigated for taking a mild pop at the Welsh, the editor of a giveaway shopping sheet is threatened with prosecution for racism for re-publishing my spoof “Asylum!” gameshow and a nurses’ leader can lose her job over the innocent use of the “N” word.
But Muslim extremists can preach murder and racism with impunity.
There is clearly one law for bloodthirsty Muslim fanatics and another for all the rest of us.
We are promised “appropriate” policing on Sunday. Presumably that means that all the coppers will have to take off their “offensive” cap badges and the WPCs will wear burqas.
Freedom of speech is one of the foundation stones of our democracy. I make a living out of it.
But, as the old saying goes, it doesn’t include the freedom to shout “fire” in a crowded theatre.
Al-Muhajiroun aren’t so much shouting “fire” as throwing petrol bombs.
Imagine the offence this will cause not just to Britain’s law-abiding Jewish community but to relatives of Britons murdered on September 11.
And then put yourself in the position of a New Yorker, or any American for that matter, watching the demo on TV.
What will they be saying? They thought the British were their staunchest allies, standing “shoulder to shoulder” in the war against terror.
So why are the Brits allowing Osama bin Laden’s recruiting sergeants, fund-raisers and cheer-leaders to hold a rally at the heart of their democracy? Good question.
You might equally inquire why a Muslim cleric facing five charges of soliciting murder, two of abusive and threatening words and behaviour, one of distributing abusive material and one of possession was granted bail by a judge at the Old Bailey this week.
Incidentally, no matter how much they hate us the likes of Captain Hook and Sheikh ’n’ Vac have no problem living here on state benefits.
You might have thought that they’d
be happier in a fundamentalist Islamic state. But then they might not find
Saudi Arabia such a soft touch. Is it any wonder that our capital city
is known abroad as Londonistan?