Six jailed over plot to bomb EDL rally
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22841573
Six men, rightly outraged at the EDL's incessant racism and intolerance, went (several) step(s) too far and hatched a rather hare-brained scheme to visit an EDL rally in Dewsbury in June 2012. They brought knives, sawn-off shotguns and amazingly, a home-made pipe bomb. However, two amazing things here - firstly, they turned up late and were unable to do any harm. Secondly, the reason they turned up late was that the rally ended early, because the EDL couldn't find enough speakers. Big surprise that, seeing as espousing their ideology makes you sound like an idiotic bigot! On the plotters' return, one of their vehicles was stopped by police and found to have no insurance - I think this was also when some of the weapons were discovered- it was only in the subsequent investigation of where they had come from and where they were headed that their intent was revealed. They've been jailed for a long time actually, over 18 years. I think this punishment is pretty harsh enough.
The moral of the story - yes, the EDL and their political arm the BNP are an insufferable and largely unacceptable part of society. I despise their ideas. But intent to cause violence usually does not end well, even for the side carrying out the violence. And also, always get your car insured!
As an atheist, the part that really gets me is the courtroom drama. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. First we have the odious Tommy Robinson in the public gallery (what the hell was he even doing there, who let him in?) shouting out as the sentences were announced "God save the Queen!". Then you have the supporters of the jailed men chanting "Allahu Akhbar" i.e. "God is great" in Arabic.
Wow. This God fellow is certainly called on a lot, isn't he/she? (I'm tempted to call Him/Her "It", such is my disdain for this particularly despicable character, who in all likelihood, is entirely fictional.) Do both sides actually realise that they are calling to the same entity? Only one of them can be right (at most, even more likely is that they're both wrong). Although Robinson and militant Muslims (Islamists) come from opposite ideological extremes, to me they are both equally wrong. God is one of those few areas of common ground for those of opposing theological view, over which so little understanding is formed, and so much conflict wrought.
"God save the Queen" Must He? I find that the Queen herself, or her legions of support staff, are pretty capable of saving her. This tendency to attach external agency to any act that is not immediately attributable to a more worldly explanation, seems to me to be somewhat puzzling.
"God is great" Is He now? So the guy who allows bone cancer in children or allows tens of thousands of people to die each year all over the world in famines, floods, storms, tsunamis and earthquakes, he's great? The guy who appeals to the majority of the world's population and thinks it's more important to tell them to oppose, fight, kill, rape and oppress each other rather than try and build a future together, he's great? That guy, who is used as a justification for the vast majority of the most terrible, murderous crimes the human race has ever bore witness to, he's great? And that guy, who has never in 2000 years shown any documented or recorded interaction with the physical world outside people's own minds, he's great? If you really think that he is, you seriously need to go away and work on your definition of great.
Adrian Briggs sums this up well. It's something along the lines of (forgive me for paraphrasing) *with delicious irony* "For 2000 years, God has appeared in the minds of his followers. It's almost as if that's the only place he exists".
While we're "God-bashing", you've got to check out Richard Dawkins' incredible long anti-God diatribe, from his book "The God Delusion" with so many adjectives to describe The Mighty One that I just get lost every time I hear it.
You can buy The God Delusion here:http://www.amazon.co.uk/God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/dp/055277331X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370893235&sr=1-1&keywords=the+god+delusion
But the thing is, it's actually right. "Trigger warning" for blasphemy, as it were.
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction. Jealous, and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, philicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully".
The EDL blame the Muslims. The Muslims blame the EDL.
Both call the name of God in their defence. But make no mistake, the notion of this God figure is clearly enabling both sides.
I blame God, and the hatred and demonisation He facilitates.
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