British man arrested for burning a Koran in his garage

America is of course the only Western country which in its supreme law prohibits government from infringing on the freedom of speech. Every other Western country has laws criminalizing speech that criticizes, offends, or insults protected minorities. It was therefore inevitable that when Terry Jones’s moral and righteous act of burning a Koran—as a symbolic rejection of that monstrous religion which commands our destruction—spread to other countries, people would be charged as criminals for committing that moral and righteous act, as has just happened to a BNP member in Wales.

As reported in the Mail article about the arrest, which is copied below, the Home Office issued a statement saying that the act of burning a Koran “is fundamentally offensive to the values of our pluralist and tolerant society.” That is exactly right. If you want to have a free society, you cannot also have a pluralist and tolerant society which includes under its pluralist and tolerant umbrella the tyrannical religion of Islam. If a society tolerates Islam, it automatically loses its freedom. If it wants to keep its freedom, it must exclude Islam. Period.

And, by the way, what does Robert Spencer, who recently accused me of deliberately publishing false statements about him when I said that he does not totally reject Islam, think about the previous paragraph? Does he agree with me that if we want to keep our freedom, we must exclude Islam?

BNP man ‘videoed burning Koran in garage’ arrested and charged

A senior member of the British National Party has been arrested for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran in his garage.

Sion Owens, a BNP candidate in the forthcoming Welsh Assembly elections, was charged under the Public Order Act.

He was said to have soaked the Islamic holy book in kerosene, set fire to it and watched it burn. Footage was then apparently circulated among extremists.

Pastory Terry Jones burnt a copy of the Koran in front of 30 people in America

The alleged act, considered highly offensive to Muslims, comes after dozens died last week in riots fuelled by a similar Koran-burning incident in America.

U.S. pastor Terry Jones—who caused an outcry when he threatened to burn the holy text last year—supervised as his assistant went through with the stunt at his church in Florida late last month.

It triggered a wave of bloody anti-American protests which included the beheading of two United Nations workers in Afghanistan.

The alleged incident involving the BNP is believed to be the first time anything similar has happened in Britain. However, police had feared far-right extremists might attempt to emulate the Mr Jones’s actions.

Owens, 41, who previously stood for a council seat and has been pictured with BNP leader Nick Griffin, was unveiled last week as the party’s candidate for the South Wales West constituency.

Last night, the Home Office ‘absolutely condemned’ the Koran-burning incident.

A statement said: ‘It is fundamentally offensive to the values of our pluralist and tolerant society.’

Owens, who allegedly wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Whitelaw No Surrender’ during the burning, was arrested within hours of police receiving the video footage. He is due to appear before Swansea magistrates today.

Another BNP election candidate, Joanne Shannon, was also arrested in connection with the incident and released on bail.

It is unclear when the alleged burning took place.

South Wales Police said: ‘We always adopt an extremely robust approach to allegations of this sort and find this sort of intolerance unacceptable in our society.’

Saqed Mueen, of international security think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, described the act as proof of the ‘globalisation of outrageous stunts’.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 11, 2011 10:41 AM | Send