How a dozen people disgraced a whole community
There are plenty of people in this country, including large numbers of the indigenous community as well as more recent immigrants, who think that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. Nor is this opinion unique to followers of Islam: it is shared by plenty of Christians, Hindus, Bhuddists, Agnostics, and Atheists.
However, most people who don't agree with the war have the sense to focus their disagreement on the politicians who ordered it, not the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who were sent, at the risk of their own lives, to remove Saddam Hussein and try to rebuild order in Iraq when that was done.
So I have no sympathy whatsoever with the dozen or so idiots who demonstrated against the Royal Anglian Regiment in Luton last week. They were aiming at the wrong targets and their placards were silly and offensive. But there are two important points to make before people start over-reacting.
1) One of the differences between Britain and, say, Saddam Hussein's Iraq is that in this country you can express opinions which disagree with the government, big business, the church, the press or anyone else, and and provided you stay within the law, nobody will stop you. That applies no matter how silly the views expressed are or how many people disagree with them.
2) We must not condemn a town of 200,000 people or communities of millions because of the views expressed by a dozen people. There were far more residents of Luton out to welcome the Royal Anglian Regiment than to criticise them: there were far more members of ethnic or religious minorities, including Muslims, who were there to cheer our boys than were there to demonstrate against them.
However, most people who don't agree with the war have the sense to focus their disagreement on the politicians who ordered it, not the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who were sent, at the risk of their own lives, to remove Saddam Hussein and try to rebuild order in Iraq when that was done.
So I have no sympathy whatsoever with the dozen or so idiots who demonstrated against the Royal Anglian Regiment in Luton last week. They were aiming at the wrong targets and their placards were silly and offensive. But there are two important points to make before people start over-reacting.
1) One of the differences between Britain and, say, Saddam Hussein's Iraq is that in this country you can express opinions which disagree with the government, big business, the church, the press or anyone else, and and provided you stay within the law, nobody will stop you. That applies no matter how silly the views expressed are or how many people disagree with them.
2) We must not condemn a town of 200,000 people or communities of millions because of the views expressed by a dozen people. There were far more residents of Luton out to welcome the Royal Anglian Regiment than to criticise them: there were far more members of ethnic or religious minorities, including Muslims, who were there to cheer our boys than were there to demonstrate against them.
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