Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:08 CDT
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An actual (no joke!) British government 'transport for London' poster.

A British teenager has been arrested and will appear in a UK court as a result of a comment he posted on Facebook about the deaths last week of six British soldiers in Afghanistan.

On March 8th, 19 year old Azhar Ahmed posted a comment on his Facebook page about the deaths of 6 British soldiers in Afghanistan on the 6th March. On the same day as Azhar's post, a Facebook group entitled Azhar Ahmed Scumbag!!! was created (with large Union Jack flag as its logo) and, someone (perhaps the creator of the FB page) reported his comment to the police. The following day, Friday, Azhar was arrested and charged over the weekend. He was then released on bail and will appear in Dewsbury magistrates' court on March 20th. An online petition has also been created that demands that Azhar be "sent to prison for hate crimes against British soldiers".

Most disturbing here is not that there are many rabid Right Wing Authoritarian types on Facebook, but that the British police clearly took the complaint seriously and took the time and effort to investigate the matter and saw fit to send a squad car to Azhar's house to arrest him.

Here is Azhar's comment:


Azhar, while British, is obviously of Arab extraction. In modern multi-cultural Britain, rife as it is with with racism, this clearly didn't go down well with the more 'right wing' British Facebookers. Indeed, while those lobbying for the incarceration of Azhar accuse him of 'hate crimes', Azhar's motivation was clearly humanitarian - he was incensed by the deaths of civilians - while his detractors are clearly racially motivated, i.e. they either don't like him because he is of Arab extraction, or they are fiercely pro-British.

The simple fact of the matter is that Azhar was making the reasonable, if emotionally charged, point that the British media is massively biased towards British troops as they engage in an imperial war of aggression that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians. When British soldiers die in combat in Afghanistan, the British press calls it a "tragedy", when Afghan civilians are murdered by British or US soldiers, the US and British media simply report it, if indeed the story even reaches the Western media.

On the deaths of the six soldiers last week for example, the British Prime Minister David Cameron said that it was a "desperately sad day for our country". And that, "every death and every injury reminds us of the human cost paid by our armed forces to keep our country safe."

Of course, this isn't quite true. It's only the deaths of British soldiers that are used to catapult the propaganda lie that any Western soldier in Afghanistan is there to "keep our country safe". The murder of Afghan civilians is used to to reinforce the lie that most Afghan civilians are probably Taliban and that Western troops are trying to "keep our countries safe" by killing them. The truth of the matter is that the deaths of those six British soldiers probably saved the lives of an unknown number of Afghan civilians, because there are at least six less Western soldiers in Afghanistan that might end up murdering, or facilitating the murder of, Afghan civilians. For example, here's a fraction of the known reports over the past few years:

if you want to read the rest of this
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/242898-British-Teenager-Azhar-Ahmed-Arrested-for-Anti-War-Facebook-Post

about 20 links to stories about civilians being killed...

britain doesnt quite take 'freedom of speech' so far

there are things like racism and bigotry which arent covered there like they are here,,,,

Yes, democracies in Europe are quite different from USA. That is why so many American tourists get in trouble.

I kind of admire that about Britain anyhow,, (the hate speech laws. etc...)

i think the kid was just telling the truth, even tho i feel it was in poor taste on his part. the British police are taking this to far, because they are saying people shouldn't have their own opinion. No wonder we kicked their ***** out and sent them packing.

its not so much about having an opinion, so much as the manner and tone and PLACE in which the opinion is expressed

I can , for instance, think a us president is dumb

I can say to my friends I think he is dumb

in the US , I can probably post on the internet that I think he is dumb


I could not stand in the middle of a fourth of july white house celebration shouting 'the President is an idiot, why are you listening to him, if you listen to him you deserve,,,,etc,,etc,,etc,,'


the expression of opinions sometimes imposes u[on other peoples space , time, safety, and obstruct the peace

than they become much more serious than just an 'opinion'

i would disagree with that... i hear of more and more people getting in trouble over facebook posting than anything else nowadays. To say our MIC is an idiot is an opinion, nothing else. and no one is saying you have to agree or disagree with the statement, same with facebook postings. just like i get upset with people bashing jews, it is just my opinion and that is where it ends. these British leaders are scared of losing control, so they try to edit out what they don't like. just like when bush was in office and he tried to control what people were saying about the iraqi war, he was scared of losing control then too. the government is for the people, not the other way around. Just like the article was saying, what freedoms in our home countries are they protecting in Afghanistan and Iraq?

well, I dont consider our current president anything close to an idiot, but Im sure others do and thats their opinion

I dont know of any trouble people can legally get in over facebook unless its a matter of libel or copyright

an opinion becomes something more when it is expressed in a manner that 'incites' or encourages violence or disturbs the safe or peaceful environment of others


its not having opinions thats the issue, it is how we carry ourself, how we impact upon the lives of others, (And where we carry ourself) while we express those opinions,,,

"the expression of opinions sometimes imposes u[on other peoples space , time, safety, and obstruct the peace"

that seems to be an opinion also... did this teen cause or do any of that?

ID say, he could impact upon others safety by posting that all soldiers should die,,,,

not saying he WILL, but I admire the attempts to use preventive measure as opposed to reactionary measures after the damage is done

that is just an excuse... "could" could mean a lot of things... people have been crucified because of the word "could"...

anything can be abused, any existing law can be abused, and sometimes will be

but preventative measures are still far more admirable than they are risky, in my opinion