Religiously-aggravated Public Order Offences

[Cronky]

Now our culture is that we take the piss out of religion,

 

Precisely. When I was younger we laughed at 'Life of Brian' and Dave Allen. How on earth did Britain become so prissy and politically correct? Brit's like to take the mick. It keeps us going during the hard times. But what are we to do if newly arriving cultures object legally to our sense of humour?

[La_Dolce_Vita]

I believe it is largely due to the problems of liberalism. Liberalism is good in lots of ways, but it has the effect of creating a society where people become more individualistic and therefore protected of who they are, what they do, and what they say. In a liberal country I think this leads to the situation where people believe that anything to do with them cannot be countered or criticised. The problem is that such ideas do not come from worthy and necessary ideas of freedom in itself, but an implicit recognition of the fact that in a liberal democracy such freedoms in the Rights are BESTOWED (in the same manner as gifts) by government. Therefore, government works to maintain such Rights and is called upon when people feel their rights (whether they exist or not) are being violated.

 

I think this popular understanding that liberalism has created where people now see others as needing respect has followed onto this idea that everything about other people deserves respect, such as beliefs. Respect is such a wank-word. It is bandied about so much but now has popular currency as the reason why repugnant beliefs should not be criticised.

 

Another reason for all this is because (fortunately) we are a society more aware of racism and made to be aware of it.

There is a problem with the issue of Islam because there is so much racism against non-whites. This racism has unfortunately mixed with understandable dislike of Islam which comprises of a lot of non-white people's culture. Many people simply say they hate Muslims and do discriminate against them. The government's response has been to deal with this with some good ideas and some appalling. But it is easy to unpick whether something is racism or anti-Islam.

 

But to repeat, political correctness is in the main a good thing. It has gone too far in some respects and now and again. But I'd rather have some understanding and use of it than none at all.

[Terse]

You think they were prosetysing when this happened or was the reason? So what? I don't know why you have a clear uncertainty about even considering whether this is wrong. I would like to know more, but I don't think I need to as this clearly seems to be a free speech issue with particular emphasis on the disrespect of some ancient guy who is venerated by Muslims.

I would suggest that, from the story, it appears to be a religious battle, i.e. Christians vs Muslims that was started when the Muslim lady appeared wearing the clothes that her religion tells her to.

At least one report mentions that the hotel owners were 'evangelists,' so the probability is that they were eagerly telling her why their pathetic excuse for a faith system was so superior to her pathetic excuse for a faith system.

Personally, I couldn't give a toss about any religion, but it sounds very much like they were bullying her and that the things they said were intended to be hurtful.

The best possible result would be that the 'Christian Hotel' goes bankrupt and becomes a casino or a whorehouse.