Say Anything Blog

So, effectively, Muslims can hate but nobody else can.

London: In a bid to stop Muslim extremists from becoming more militant, the UK Government is set to issue a guideline for police, directing them not to charge them in many hate crime cases, a move that has created outrage amongst critics.

Guidelines will tell forces to press for conviction only in cases of clear-cut criminal acts, and refrain from proceeding when evidence of lawbreaking is “borderline.”

Officers will be advised to turn a blind eye on crimes such as incitement to religious hatred or viewing extremist material on the Internet.

“For instance, where there has been incitement or someone has been on the internet there can be a grey area where there is some discretion and it would be more sensible to avoid going down the criminal route,” the Daily Express quoted a White Hall source, as saying.

What bothers me isn’t so much that Muslims are being excluded from this law, though basing enforcement of the law on race or religion is blatantly discriminatory and totally objectionable, but rather that Great Britain is arresting anyone merely for saying or reading things the government has defined as “hateful.”

This is why “hate crimes” have no place in a free society.  Hate crimes are, essentially, hate crimes.  Simply reading something that is hateful, or saying something that is hateful, should not be a crime.  Because thinking things and saying things are protected by our free speech rights.  At least here in America anyway, if perhaps not places like Britain, but even so.  Britain has a tradition of individual liberty, at least historically, not terribly unlike our own.  And criminalizing thoughts and speech has no more business happening there than here.

If you assault someone then that is a crime.  It is no worse a crime if you happen to be motivated by racial hatred instead of, say, what might be in the person you’re assaulting’s wallet.

Racial or religious hatred is pretty stupid, if you ask me, but it shouldn’t be illegal.