Bring in the Prisoner!

Submitted by Monty (United Kingdom), Mar 12, 2008 at 13:33

David,

By the same logic, Gerry Adams would be in prison today. But his political support for the aims of the Provisional IRA, was not a criminal offence at the time, and I don't think it would be now. If we ever found evidence of his collusion in, say, the fire-bombing of the Le Mon House Hotel, it would probably be a very different matter. Accessory to murder. But we do not have that evidence, so the presumption of innocence prevails. We are answerable in law for specific direct, criminal offences, not the low-lives we associate with, or the wrong-doing of fellow travellers, or celebrating the murder of Israeli schoolchildren, or what we fantasize about doing to the House of Lords.

If it were otherwise, muslims in the UK would be answerable in law, for supporting a religious movement that promotes the ideology that underpins terrorism, and a multitude of other sins. Now I am not aware which specific crimes Shoebat has 'fessed up to, perhaps someone else could enlighten us to which crimes, and which jurisdiction.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".