Sunday 21 August 2016

Crossing the Line. How much freedom of speech should religious extremists have?

“Why do I watch SML?” I ask myself this nearly every week. I might answer “For several reasons.” 
(Inner dialogue, you understand.)

Firstly, there’s the sweet and sour factor. You know, the cringeworthy element that used to make us keep watching The Office from behind the sofa. Not a good analogy, really, because the Office made us laugh and you can’t say SML does that. 

Next, there’s the excitement of seeing who’s on the panel. Like with TBQ - you spot your favourites straight away. Douglas Murray, and, and, and…… well, you get the drift. 

Then there’s those contributions from the public. (You! ) Tommy reads out a few banal and mostly puerile messages from unidentifiable commenters. He often reads them inaccurately, which is all the more bizarre because we can read them for ourselves from the giant screen. 

When he’s done, Naga or host-of-the-week turns back to the panel, which always continues as before; slightly embarrassed by the crude interruption, pretending it didn’t happen like a fart at a formal dinner.

I can see why the BBC keeps asking the public to join the conversation - but the fact is that the public’s contribution rarely adds value, and what’s more, often goes the ‘wrong’ way. Remember that audience poll they used to run - they scrapped it when the results were so consistently contrary to the BBC’s agenda that it became a bit of a joke. Entertaining though it was for we contrarians.

Anyway, while politics has been temporarily ripped from the Sunday morning schedule, we are grateful for SML. It’s all we’ve got.


Naga Munchetty has gone up in my estimation. She seems better suited to her role as SML host than she ever did when sitting on that sofa beside a male co-anchor, addressing the lightweight, chatty, gossipy items that dominate ‘Breakfast.’ 
Samira Ahmed also seemed to blossom when she quit Channel Four and started doing more intellectually demanding things at the BBC. I don’t compare them solely because they’re ‘ethnics’, or ‘women’, but because they both seemed to have spent a long time being under-utilised. 

Anyway, this morning’s discussion really suffered from SML’s constraining format. Too many topics squashed into too little time. At least they didn’t have anyone Skyping from a remote location, with their huge head on a huge screen, looking menacing while waiting to speak.

The main topic was about freedom of speech and Anjem Choudary’s recent conviction. 


The obvious retort would be “None” because most of us define religious extremists as anti-British, anti-democratic and dangerous. But of course it’s not as simple as that. There are many shades of religious extremism - and ‘freedom of speech’ is considered to be one of our fundamental rights. You can’t start clamping down on one person’s freedom of speech without compromising another person’s freedom of expression.

So SML confined itself to this one particular case, where Anjem Choudary was found guilty of incitement to actual killings. In particular, of supporting I.S. and encouraging others go to Syria and chop people’s heads off. This is where he appears to have crossed that crucial line.

Why Choudary didn’t join his ideal Islamic state himself is not clear; perhaps because he had a wife and family to claim benefits for? (rumoured to be £25,740 P.A.)

Chris Phillips, ‘Terror and security expert’ spoke first. He described Choudary as a revolting man - probably not a good enough reason to put him away - but he’s glad he’s finally been jailed as he has caused enormous damage to this country, but that “no-one actually knows how many deaths were the result of his words.”

It seemed kind of obvious that it was a jolly good thing Choudary has been locked up. All the more surprising, then, when Luke Gittos (solicitor) emphatically disagreed.
“I think his conviction is an outrage. I think he’s been locked up for what he believes and what he thinks”. 
He thinks it’s ridiculous to claim Choudary has caused any deaths. “he merely declared his support for ISIS in a pub with his mates, and made a bunch of loony videos on Youtube’.

Now that seems slightly at odds with Choudhry’s fanatical Islamic beliefs. I’m well aware of his early boozy, druggy, womanising days when he was a student known by his mates as ‘Andy’. But did he really still go to the pub with his ‘mates’ and say something rash about ISIS whilst under the influence?

Anyway, the solicitor felt he should have been left to express his nutty ideas and let them face public scrutiny, (much as he was doing now, perhaps?)
'Censorship pushes such ideas underground, where they cannot be challenged,' he said.
Of course he didn’t consider the actual danger of challenging such ideas - a danger faced by all, including dissenting Muslims.

The next speaker was Henna Rai, from ‘Women Against Radicalisation Network’. She cited the killers of Lee Rigby, and said Choudary was responsible for ruining the lives of many by inciting and encouraging young people to go to Syria, and spreading venomous lies and vitriol about Islam. 
“We need to protect the most vulnerable” she said, “and tell them the truth about what Islam really is.” 
So, another agenda, squeezed into an already overflowing time-frame. 

Last to speak, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, one of the regulars on this kind of programme. He explained that as a trained lawyer Choudary was clever enough to sail close to the wind, and got caught only when he crossed the line.  Freedom of speech trumps everything and it’s only ‘crossing that line” by inciting people to violence that can justify putting Choudary in prison.

That’s quite a platitude, but the argument, which boiled down to finding an explicit definition of ‘incitement’, was worth developing. 

The solicitor said there was no evidence that Choudary incited anyone to violence, so the conviction came close to imprisoning people merely for what they believe and think. He said that Lee Rigby’s killers couldn’t have been ‘ordinary men’ who ‘suddenly got radicalised’ after hearing Anjem Choudary preach. They must have been predisposed, I suppose is what he meant. 

That theory deserved a rigorous unpacking, but instead Ms Rai went down another path, the one that takes us to “I.S. does not represent ‘True Islam’.”

The solicitor (Luke Gittos) acknowledged that Choudary’s religious principles perceive the man-made construct ‘democracy’ as artificial, and he admits that Choudary’s religion denies others (women, infidels etc) freedom of speech. Gittos believes that if we deny Choudary the freedom of speech and make a martyr of him, we only succeed in ‘proving his point’.

The sort of faultless logic that is all very well in theory, but in not in practice. 

They did touch on the matter of radicalisation in prison, something that Michael Gove was beginning to tackle and his successor has pledged to continue.

The news that Choudary might be confined to some sort of isolation in prison met with the panel’s approval, apart from the lone voice (Gittos) who claimed we’re about to change our whole way of life (by imprisoning people for thought crimes) just for the sake of one or two deranged individuals. 
He certainly had a point, but seemed to be in denial over the rise of radical Islam in Europe and the rest of the world. Here we are teetering on the brink of the clash of civilisations.

Suddenly he seemed to be agreeing that as soon as a line is crossed, i.e., by incitement to violence, then it’s okay to punish the accused. So, back to square one and the unanswered question. What exactly is incitement?

Jonathan Romain rounded off the circular debate by reminding us that Choudary has had 20 years of freedom, and by crossing that all important line, was the architect of his own downfall.
However, we must question ourselves, he said. Ask what was the real cause of radicalisation, be more vociferous in challenging extremists and reinforce our own values.

There came a short intervention by Tommy for YOUR tweets and messages  (in which an extreme split has been detected)……… and back to the debate.

The solicitor still insisted that  there was no evidence that Choudary ever directly incited anyone, and that most Muslims think of him as a bit of a windbag and don’t take any notice of him. It seemed as if we were about to embark on another lap of the same circuit. But no. At last we all agree. 

We need more democracy and more freedom of speech. We also need less time-consuming padding on SML if it’s ever going to compete with Sunday morning’s regular fare.


13 comments:

  1. Nice gigantic smokescreen there, to distract from the charge that the BBC gave Choudray much more of a platform than was necessary or wise. This isn't about stifling free speech from religious extremists. This is about giving a religious extremist so much attention- not all of it negative - and air time that he becomes mainstream and gains real influence. Possibly more importantly, it's also about the authorities and media once again dropping the ball on Islamic extremism and dangerous behavior for fear of being Islamaophobic.

    Trying to frame this is an old-fashioned debate about freedom of speech and democracy is a load of crap.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Completely agree. Idiots like Choudray aren’t really the problem. The BBC, on the other hand is. Jailing Choudray is just another way for the authorities avoid the real issues around Islam in the West.

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    2. Choudray should be in jail, with his lines of communication cut off (if EU 'human rights' laws allow it, that is). But he should have been brought to trial and locked up years ago. Like the grooming gangs, he was allowed to do what he pleased for years and years, while the authorities and the BBC knew all about what he was up to. How many years ago did that video of Choudray joking about taking 'jihadi benefits' come to light, and he faced no consequences and the BBC didn't show it and challenge him? It was never an item on HIGNFY, curiously.

      Delete
  2. It seems to me that this was a dishonest debate. The distinction should be between freedom of speech and conspiracy to overthrow democracy - not simply violent conspiracy. If people favour Sharia law, they should be free to say so. But if they organise to replace democracy with it, then they should face criminal sanctions. This is the approach Germany takes in dealing with Far Right and Far Left totalitarian threats. It has a special agency to investigate and assess suspected conspiracies. We should have something similar.

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  3. Think Choudhury`s an idiot-but not a criminal.
    Feel if he goes for this-it`ll be Trump, Murray-and us next time.
    Got to say while I`m here that todays SUNDAY was very good-usual caveats but very few...Wyatt much better than Stourton and some good pieces-Anjem not mentioned though,but let`s be grateful...oh hell, he`s back next week she`s just said!

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  4. Can we have a glossary, or side panel explanations of jargon.
    SML? TBQ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, I was careless. Of course one should always include the unabbreviated form at least once in every essay, preferably at the beginning. If we had a half decent (or any) editor he or she would have fixed that.

      I suspect that the full title for specialised organisations and associations should always be included at the least once in the article, preferably at the initial mention, and abbreviations and acronyms thereafter.

      Acronyms seem to be part of the language these days, what with texting and blogging, not to mention Twitter.

      SML means Sunday Morning Live and TBQ is The Big Questions

      FYI, (for your information) QT is Question Time, AQ is Any Questions and AA would be for Any Answers if it wasn’t already taken by the Automobile Association and Alcoholics Anonymous.

      PS., HIGNFY is Have I got News For You. HTH (hope that helps)

      Delete
    2. TYVMFTUI
      Thank you very much for that useful information.
      Seriously though, thank you for your blog. It is much appreciated.

      Delete
  5. I make a simple proposition: The world would be a better place without Islam.

    So why does the BBC persist in promoting it? We seem to be playing a game: "Not all tigers bite so let them run free!"

    We must be mad.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I know it's not really in your remit but the "all leave voters we lied to" is really beginning to get on my nerves.

    Has anyone seen or could you do a post on the many remain lies? Emergency budget, interest rates going up, share price plunge etc etc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You want a list of Remain lies? Here's a good place to start:

      http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32793642

      Just read all the reasons the BBC gives for Remaining in the EU.

      Delete
  7. Words fail me.

    MP Heather Wheeler sparks Twitter backlash with British Empire post
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-37163416

    Just why is this offensive? Did the British Empire exist? Yes. Is this directed at the EU claiming they had won most golds? Yes.

    You just know that the tweets are carefully selected by the BBC.

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  8. The last thing in the world that supporters of Choudray want is an assertion of the principle of free speech. If the result of this case is a further encroachment of that principle it will be a victory for them. Hateful speech is vile, but criminalising it is the start of a very slippery slope.

    ReplyDelete

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