England Jails Homophobes

[Rheinmetall]

I've always had high regard for English police and law system, and now I'm even more pleased to hear this news.

 

[Phasmal]

The convicted people have a right to propose a law.

Thats fine if thats what they were doing, but its not. They didn't go to any legal groups, they were not proposing we actually change the law, they were putting around fliers about how gay people should be killed. Which is hate speech. Even if they put this through law it would be dismissed for being hate speech.

 

[ElPatron]

As Melon Hunter said, in Britain, we have different ideas about freedom of speech than you do in America. Does that make us wrong? It's not like America has total freedom of speech either, slander, libel and death threats are still illegal.
Thanks to British hate speech laws, we have never had a powerful far-right fascist political party and we have far fewer people like the KKK or Westboro Baptist Church here, and that makes me happy.

I'm sorry, but:

-- KKK has committed far more crimes than hate speech. It's not the freedom of speech that protects them.

-- You basically said "I want freedom of speech to be restricted except to myself and people I agree with".

 

[ElPatron]

As Melon Hunter said, in Britain, we have different ideas about freedom of speech than you do in America. Does that make us wrong? It's not like America has total freedom of speech either, slander, libel and death threats are still illegal.
Thanks to British hate speech laws, we have never had a powerful far-right fascist political party and we have far fewer people like the KKK or Westboro Baptist Church here, and that makes me happy.

I'm sorry, but:

-- KKK has committed far more crimes than hate speech. It's not the freedom of speech that protects them.

-- You basically said "I want freedom of speech to be restricted except to myself and people I agree with".

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

[...] they seem to have been campaigning for gay people to be executed under the law, and that would be as defensible as campaigning for, say, rapists to be executed.

No it wouldn't. Rape is an offence punishable by law, therefore you can rightfully discuss what you think the punishment should be. Homosexuality is not an offence punishable by law, therefore asking for these people to be killed is utterly unacceptable.

 

[DirtyJunkieScum]

Three Muslim extremists who handed out leaflets calling for homosexuals to be hanged, stoned and burned to death have been jailed.
*SNIP*

You know, I imagine the judge in question had a bit more evidence than a Daily Mail article. Unless you sat in on the proceedings or have access to the court records you really can't pass any kind of informed judgement on this.

EDIT: I fact here's a mirror article that goes into a bit more detail.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/muslim-men-face-jail-for-handing-165170

From what I can make out they do not advocate changing the law, they are simply stating that in the past homosexuals have been killed as part of capital punishment by the state and that Muslim law states they should be executed. It could be called as putting forth the idea that "yeah, it's totally ok to kill gays". But I don't know, I haven't seen the pamphlets or everything the judge has seen.

 

[MC K-Mac]

Try reading the article, jackass. The pamphlet said: "'Allah permits the destruction' of gay people and that 'the only question is how it should be carried out'". How in the holy hell is that 'proposing a change in the legal system'? Idiot.

Because you didn't read closely enough and also didn't do your research. This story broke a while before and has been discussed at length.

Reread the article, it's about death penalty and opposing decriminalization.

"Method" refers to "method of execution", so stoning, hanging, etc. Not that normal civilians should perform it.

Oh, big fucking deal. So he said "the death sentence" instead of "death". Yeah, all of a sudden it's civilized rational discourse. So when someone walks up to me and says "You deserve to die, and here are several acceptable ways in which to kill you, all of which have been outlawed in every civilized country in the world," I should respond "Why, a jaunty good day to you sir, thanks so much for sharing your opinion."

Moron.

 

[Weaver]

I would be behind them being in prison if they were putting around leaflets calling for the `legal` death of any race/religion.

You are trying to make an argument against free speech there. There is nothing wrong with wanting a law to be made, even if it asks for the death penalty. Just because YOU dislike the death penalty (as do I), doesn't mean it's not okay for others to want it.

You are walking down the path of making your own moral law. That's bad. That's what countries that KILL gay people have.

Nooooo. I am simply saying that hate speech (which this was) is not protected and you can be prosecuted for it.
That is what the law is.
It's not my moral law, its the law law.

Inciting hatred against a group (such as gays) is against the law. If a bunch of guys were doing this (and if you read it clearly they certainly were), they shouldn't act suprised when they go to jail.

Inciting hatred against a sexual orientation is only illegal in the UK and only has been for about a month. Inciting VIOLENCE is illegal in more places.

Canada has laws against hate speech as well. We've had them for years.

 

[OniaPL]

Freedom of speech yay, hate speech nay.

 

[OniaPL]

Canada has laws against hate speech as well. We've had them for years.

Same over here in Finland as well, I think.

 

[Archroy]

It seems to me that they have attempted to apply a thin veneer of "respectability" to their witless ramblings by couching it in half-arsed legalese and it should be clear to anyone with an ounce of common sense that this is a trio of obnoxious pricks who tried to ineptly cover their own backs and failed miserably.

If they wanted a change in the law, they should have gone to their MP and asked them to bring it up in parliament, or started a petition trying to get teh gayness made illegal. And if they somehow achieved the impossible and outlawed homosexuality, then is the time to try to apply the death penalty. Not all in one fell swoop. Baby steps, lads.

 

[Sparrow]

I'm ok with this. They sound like wankers. Less scum on my streets, so I see no reason to complain.

 

[Phaerim]

This is perfectly fine. Justice was done.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Watch this slip right over Rick Santorum's head.

 

[RyoScar]

I have no issues with this.

 

[PinochetIsMyBro]

There are certain things which are objectively wrong. Inciting hatred and violence against people who have done nothing wrong is one of those things.

I'm pretty sure to these guys that being gay is 'objectively wrong.'

Why is your opinion and system of values any more valid than theirs?

I find it immensely amusing that multiple people who have stated jailing these three men was acceptable went on to make disparaging blanket statements about entire groups of people in the same post. Pretty sure that could easily fall under 'inciting hatred' if the government was so inclined.

An entire thread full of hypocrites. So delicious.

 

[Captain Pirate]

I was expecting just "someone said they didn't approve of a gay person and they were hauled off by cops" and was all prepared with a "this is over-reacting" speech but this?

Yeah, I'm fully okay with these hateful pricks being in jail. You can't just call for a group of people to be violently murdered and expect to not catch shit for saying that openly and in public.

Aaaaand [/thread] right here.
I too was thinking it would be along the lines of somebody saying they aren't cool with gays and being jailed for years because of it, not people actively encouraging their public murder.

I don't see anything unfair or ironic about this.

 

[Platypus540]

Why can't the US do this to the WBC?

 

[Yopaz]

I was expecting just "someone said they didn't approve of a gay person and they were hauled off by cops" and was all prepared with a "this is over-reacting" speech but this?

Yeah, I'm fully okay with these hateful pricks being in jail. You can't just call for a group of people to be violently murdered and expect to not catch shit for saying that openly and in public.

I'm actually not sure how okay with it I am. Obviously these guys are massive assholes, but they were campaigning for gay people to be legally executed, not for them to be murdered in the streets--the latter of which is inciting violence, the former more... a dick move, lol.

I don't care that they are in jail per se, but I dunno if it oversteps the boundaries a little.

Well, campaigning for killing a group of people legally isn't much better than campaigning to murder people. This is a hate crime no matter how you look at it.