Little Green Footballs

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Glorifying terrorism

Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber makes an interesting point about the proposed law in Britain outlawing 'glorifying terrorism'. Who decides which historical events it is or isn’t acceptable to “glorify”. He lists these following events and asks will the 'praise' of them be illegal.

The Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel (1946)

Any bombings or shootings by the Baader-Meinhof gang.

ETA’s assassination of Prime Minister Carrero Blanco in 1973

Any acts of Palestinian terrorism.

The assassination by Mossad of Palestinian leaders in foreign countries.

The assassination of any member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by the French secret service in 1985.
This is a minefield. These acts were terrorist acts but depending on your political outlook some can be explained. For instance, Charles of LGF would probably not consider the assasination of Palestinians by Mossad in foreign countries an act of terrorism. Does this mean Charles should cross Britain off his holiday destination list in fear of breaking UK law?

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