Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Preaching the Gospel is a Hate Crime

Well, sometimes, when it's done very badly.

But we are still a little shocked that two street-corner evangelists in England were told they could not do their thing "because this is a Muslim area."  We are considerably more shocked that a police officer agreed, and warned that if they came back, they would be beaten up.

We at the Egg will confess that we have occasionally wanted to beat up a street preacher.  They just bug us.  But we have always refrained, both because of our a priori commitment to free speech, and because we were convinced that the law would punish us if we assaulted somebody because we didn't like what they said.  

Apparently Britons -- or at least British Muslims -- lack this commitment or this conviction.

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