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"PEACEFUL" MUSLIMS ? |
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Click
your red shoes together and repeat after me: Islam
is a peaceful religion, Islam is a peaceful religion. Islam is a
peaceful religion...
This
series of photographs was taken during a 3 February
2006 protest staged in London by Muslims angry over the publication
in Scandinavian periodicals of cartoons depicting the prophet
Muhammad.
[
Click any picture for a larger view ] |
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An
estimated 500 to 700 demonstrators marched from Regent's Park Mosque
to the Danish embassy in Knightsbridge during the protest. MP David
Davis, the shadow home secretary, condemned messages displayed on
some of the protesters' placards as an "incitement to
murder":
Clearly,
some of these placards are incitement to violence, and indeed
incitement to murder — an extremely serious offence which the
police must deal with and deal with quickly.
Whatever your view on these cartoons, we have a tradition of
freedom of speech in this country which has to be protected.
Certainly there can be no tolerance of incitement to murder.
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MP
David Winnick, a member of the House of Commons Home Affairs
Committee, called for the prosecution and deportation of some of the
demonstrators:
The cartoons were
deeply offensive to hundreds of millions of Muslims. But it is
totally unacceptable that, on British soil, there should be thugs
demonstrating for people to be beheaded and actually glorifying
the atrocities of July 7.
"It is to be hoped that prosecutions will follow very quickly
indeed."
He said those responsible who were temporarily in Britain should
be deported, even it meant stripping them of permission previously
given to remain in the country.
The Walsall North MP added that the overwhelming majority of
Muslims in Britain "have the same distaste as the rest of us
about these thugs".
"I hope it will be the last time we ever see such a
demonstration, totally unacceptable to the Muslim community,"
he said.
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Other
Muslims maintained that the protesters were extremists not
representative of mainstream British Muslims:
Asghar Bukhari,
chairman of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, said the
demonstration in London should have been stopped by police because
the group had been advocating violence.
He said the protesters "did not represent British
Muslims".
Mr Bukhari told the BBC News website: "The placards and
chants were disgraceful and disgusting, Muslims do not feel that
way.
"I condemn them without reservation, these people are less
representative of Muslims than the BNP are of the British
people."
He said that Muslims were angry over satirical cartoons of the
Prophet Muhammad published in European papers but it was
"outrageous" for anyone to advocate extreme action or
violence.
"We believe it [the protest] should have been banned and the
march stopped.
"It's irrelevant whether it's Muslims causing hatred or
anyone else — freedom of speech has to be
responsible."
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No
arrests were made at the time, according to police, due to the
danger posed by the size and nature of the crowd:
As the clamour
for action grew, police sources said there were no arrests because
of fears of a riot. A senior Scotland Yard officer said: "We
have to take the overall nature of the protesters into account. If
they are overheated and emotional we don't go in.
"It's like a risk assessment; you have to look at the crowd
you are dealing with. If we went in to arrest one person with a
banner the crowd would turn on us and people would get hurt."
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