The strange case of Azhar Ahmed – can you racially abuse your own side?
AZHAR Ahmed has been arrested. He is looking at charges of “racially aggravated public order offences”. Azhar Ahmed is 19. He lives in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Ahmed’a alleged crime was to have complained on Facebook that the coverage of the recent deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan was unfair – Cpl Jake Hartley, 20, Pte Anthony Frampton, 20, and Pte Christopher Kershaw, 19, Pte Daniel Wade, 20, Pte Daniel Wilford, 21, and Sgt Nigel Coupe, 33 were killed when their Warrior MICV fighting vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.
He allegedly ranted:
People gassin’ about the deaths of soldiers. What about the innocent families who have been brutally killed… The women who have been raped… The children who have been sliced up…! The enemy’s were the Taliban not innocent harmful familys. All soldiers should DIE and got to HELL. THE LOWLIFE FOKKIN SCUM! got a problem go and cry at your soldiers grave & wish them hell because thats is where she is going”
How is that inciting racial hatred? It’s ugly. It’s stupid. It’s vain. It’s insulting. But how is that a “racially aggravated public order offence”?
Is it because Ahmed has a name rooted in the East and the killed soldiers do not? The use of Facebook to display your views, however ill conceived, and language written with a Yorkshire accent are typically British elements in Ahmed’s rant.
The charge against Azhar Ahmed seems to suggest that he is not part of the same race as the British Army, who represent the entire country, of which the accused is a member. Can’t he hold an alternative view, however objectionable and idiotic?
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman adds:
“He didn’t make his point very well and that is why he has landed himself in bother.”
Are they also the language police?
Posted: 14th, March 2012 | In: Reviews Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
