| | Arrested For Facebook CommentsPage 1 of 2 (1, 2) | From Sky News
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A teenager will appear in court after being arrested for allegedly making comments on Facebook about the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan last week.
Azhar Ahmed, 19, is said to have posted the comments on his profile page and has been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence.
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said Ahmed, of Fir Avenue, Ravensthorpe, was criticising the level of attention the British soldiers who died in a bomb blast received compared to Afghan civilians who have died in the war.
http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16187397
Taking it is read that his comments were most likely crass and insensitive, is this really a matter that the police should have become involved with? I'm not sure exactly when being crass and insensitive was made a criminal offence but nevertheless it appears it is.
Does he make a fair point about Afghan civilians (and you could ask the same about Iraqi civilians)? After all this is a point that is going to be overlooked (along with the extent to which speech is now restriced by law) in the vitriol that is going to be directed at him. | |
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| Arrested For Facebook Comments
Posted: 3/13/2012 2:15:37 PM | I must admit to not knowing the facts on this, but it seems to me that if anyone puts up, in public, anything that may be (in the judgement of the police) liable to cause distress or civil unrest, that looks very much, on the face of it, like a 'public order' offence situation, which may or may not merit a criminal charge.
Obviously someone 'up there' thinks that there were grounds, will be interesting to see what (if anything) the Court makes of it, if indeed it ever actually gets there.
(Apologies for the length of 1st sentence)
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| Arrested For Facebook Comments
Posted: 3/13/2012 2:17:20 PM | If that is all he has been arrested for then it is a disgrace.
The media portrays ALL the murders of the people of Afghanistan as just statistics, yet when it's 'our boys' then they go overboard to portray them as human beings. No de-humanisation there!
The lives of ALL Afghan citizens are as sacred as 'ours'.
It's this country that is in the wrong in Afghanistan as it was in Iraq.
We might as well put the star of david on the Union Jack and have done with it. | |
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Posted: 3/13/2012 2:20:09 PM | | I'm in two minds really. If you made those comments in public it would probably be an offence, so why not on-line? I imagine there is more than just the comments, maybe he has made other comments too. At the end of the day he hasn't been convicted of anything yet so who knows what the outcome will be. If it makes people stop and think what they're saying and it causes them to moderate their voice, then I guess at least something good will come from it. The action probably was slightly over the top though, but we don't know all the facts. | |
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Posted: 3/13/2012 2:29:29 PM | Actually I think its says a great deal about the state the country is in if criminal laws are needed to make people have good manners and not say something that could offend someone or cause hurt feelings.
My concern is that this is not an islolated incident but part of a trend that started when a certain scumbag (is calling someone a scumbag deemed to be evidence of violent intent towards them yet?) first set foot in Downing Street.
There are many examples but one in particular sticks in my mind.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/20/1
I believe the case was dropped but the policing mentality is as strong as ever. | |
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Posted: 3/13/2012 3:13:07 PM | I read about a guy getting busted for trolling with other posters on a site....it was all about a young boy that was tragically killed some years ago in Liverpool...
some things need policing. | |
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Posted: 3/13/2012 3:38:51 PM | Actually I think its says a great deal about the state the country is in if criminal laws are needed to make people have good manners and not say something that could offend someone or cause hurt feelings.
Especially when race laws are only observed if you're a footballer.
How obvious does it need to be? Terrorists and footballers. | |
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Posted: 3/13/2012 4:26:58 PM | I have it on good authority the USA is doing its best to make amends
h**p://w*w*w.thedailymash.co.uk/news/war/predator-drone-visiting-afghan-families-on-condolence-mission-201203135003/
Sad that UK soldiers may die as the result of Us indifference to civilians.or"towel heads" in durka-durkastan. : ( | |
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Posted: 3/13/2012 7:22:43 PM | Another nail in the coffin of freedom. And cheered on all the way by net user who it should add will be the first to suffer when the net is switched off on the grounds of POF is a terrorist hotbed!
The guy is entitled to his point of view although he could have picked a better medium to air it. I didnt realise they did arranged marriages on POF? this site just never stops giving! | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 4:54:59 AM | A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said Ahmed, of Fir Avenue, Ravensthorpe, was criticising the level of attention the British soldiers who died in a bomb blast received compared to Afghan civilians who have died in the war.
Ok, so this kid is British citizen.... Why is he harping on about Afghan civilians? If he went over there for a few days, on his own, in a civilian capacity, he'd be dead within hours. Killed by the very people he seems to support....
There's a difference between airing your views and trying to undermine your countries stability.
I don't like some of the things this country does, but if your British, you support your country OR you f**k off, the choice is simple.
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Posted: 3/14/2012 6:43:39 AM | Well said sir. Far to many pop into the Uk or say that they are ethic whatevers and instead of supporting the country that gives them a safe life want to knock the very culture that gives them a good life with safety.
Funny how they also use the safety of hiding behind the computer screen when if they said it in public they would get a smack in the mouth and then claim racial abuse. | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 6:47:20 AM |
I don't like some of the things this country does, but if your British, you support your country OR you f**k off, the choice is simple.
And exactly who is 'your country'? Are you in fact referring to 'the government' here?
If I'm not consulted in a decision (and even if I am, but get overruled), then I reserve the right not to agree with that decision - or even protest against it if I feel strongly enough about the matter.
Patriotism, like religion, can be used to compel obedience and complicity in an action when that action cannot necessarily be justified with reason and logic. It is a system of control.
Were conscientious objectors who refused to fight in Vietnam unpatriotic? By definition they might be described as so, but in reality they were simply individuals standing up for their own personal sense of morality and not letting others impose their own agendas and ideals on them. I'm sure they had as much love and kinsmanship for their fellow Americans, but just didn't agree with the Government getting involved in the war.
There's a difference between airing your views and trying to undermine your countries stability.
I agree with this. There is a lot of discussion at the moment about incitement of racial hatred and terrorism through the use of various public forums. There is a very delicate balance between exercising your right to freedom of speech, and blatantly provoking unrest and 'stirring the pot'.
I haven't read the comments in detail, but it sounds like this 19 year old kid just found himself seen by the police to be standing on the wrong side of that line.
We live in troubled times, and as kinsmen we should all be supporting each other as best we can through any hardships we should face as a country (tell that to the tax-dodging rich and the poor-vilifying politicians when it comes to resolving the national debt fairly without financially crippling the poor! Or looking after our brave injured troops upon their return from service!) - but that doesn't mean we must conform to any oppressive ideals imposed on us by the state either.
To be completely blind to the plight of those beyond our borders (particularly as a result of actions we as a country are involved in) would put us firmly in National Front territory, where I would prefer to steer well clear. | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 7:22:19 AM | I would imagine from the FB posters name that he is of foreign decent . His parent, granparents whoever came to the UK for a better life and possibly a degree of safety from whatever regime in their country of birth. I would imagine that the FB poster has also benefitted from this without worrying if the walls would be blown in on his house one night.
He may have his allegiances to a former culture or religion but from the safe base of the culture he lives in he wants to pop at ours.
If he feels so strongly then as it has been said he is free to go back there and support whatever he wants as infact I believe othes have done. | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 7:35:49 AM | Have people read the young man's comments? I now have. And I agree with every word he wrote. So where should I go?
It's not unlike the case of the man arrested during WWI for distributing copies of The Sermon on the Mount.
There is absolutely nothing racist about the comments the man made. He wasn't 'trolling', he expressed his opinion on his status.
As I said before, we dehumanize the 'enemy' (they're not my enemy) yet humanize people from this country. Standard tactics during 'war', and shameful ones. The life of a person from Afghanistan is as valuable as the life of a person from this country.
This evil persecution of this man gives plenty of material to those who claim Islamophobia. | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 7:37:17 AM | For 1, I cant see anything on that link to show what he actually wrote. 2, A spokesman for the Police said "He didn't make his point very well and that is why he has landed himself in bother."
Maybe it was the only way the lad could write his point, if you know what I mean. So he has been arrested for not making his point very well?
I think quite a few folk even on this forum have read things differently than the way the poster intended them to be read.
It sounds as though the lad has posted something some didnt want to hear/read on a page designed especially for condolences to the fallen soldiers. | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 9:08:02 AM |
I don't like some of the things this country does, but if your British, you support your country OR you f**k off, the choice is simple.
No.
My tax money is stolen to be spent advancing the neo-imperialistic agendas of the corporations who have purchased my leaders and I am told this is democracy... it is my country, or rather the Government having failed to serve me that needs to f**k off.
Or is the issue that the person making the comment was called Ahmed? | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 9:17:32 AM | | As a parallel there were some offenders that posted on facebook that were deeming to incite riots most recently, though I am not aware that their first names were Ahmed? | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 9:37:09 AM |
No.
My tax money is stolen to be spent advancing the neo-imperialistic agendas of the corporations who have purchased my leaders and I am told this is democracy... it is my country, or rather the Government having failed to serve me that needs to f**k off.
Or is the issue that the person making the comment was called Ahmed?.
SGB i agree with every aspect of your point. And after 27 years of service i kinda feel cheated tbh.  | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 9:53:55 AM |
No.
My tax money is stolen to be spent advancing the neo-imperialistic agendas of the corporations who have purchased my leaders and I am told this is democracy... it is my country, or rather the Government having failed to serve me that needs to f**k off.
I don't give a flying one what or why or how, all I know is our lads and lasses are out there fighting and dying for country.... Let the Afghans worry about their own.
Or is the issue that the person making the comment was called Ahmed?
Ahmed? Probably one of 15 aliases, his name could be John Smith for all I care. | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 10:06:28 AM |
I don't give a flying one what or why or how, all I know is our lads and lasses are out there fighting and dying for country.... Let the Afghans worry about their own.
But that is the problem, they are not are they?
I mean sure some of them signed up to fight and die for this country, and for that I can only give them absolute respect. But the job of the British armed forces is to defend Britain, not to be hired out as private sector mercenaries. Afghanistan did not attack us, we have no place being there.
And we should express concern for the civilian casulties of our wars, even if the war was justified in any way, we should still express some sympathy for civilian deaths.
Now obviously we dont know what this Ahmed said, but if it was as described then it is utterly chilling for him to have been arrested. Especially if we compare him to Piers Morgan, who had faked the news back during the second world war would have been hung, but is a free man. | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 10:09:04 AM | Msg 3.
Could you please clarify the last sentence of your post for me as I am at a loss to grasp what you could possibly mean and can only assume that gross antisemitism is rife in your part of the world.......
I suggest you watch the recent documentary about the EDL scum in Luton.Look at the flags that were being carried. As ever anti zionism is twisted to be anti semitism. The usual ploy.I have no support for wars caused by the fascist ideology that is zionism. I can only assume that gross support for the holocaust of the Palestinian people is rife in your part of the world.
The arms trade had a bit of a slump in the 90's due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Let's invent a new enemy - Islam, that'll perk sales up, at the same time as delegitimizing the Palestinian cause.
Back on topic, as I stated before the young man was not trolling, did not set up a page and incited nothing apart from suggesting empathy with the people of Afghanistan.
Edit, If you look, you will find what Mr Ahmed posted. | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 10:19:53 AM | The dangers of what you post online!
If it were said perhaps in the street, it would still have been unpleasant and one might have ignored it and moved on or argued the point.
The question is does it in itself warrant being arrested in connection with a "racially aggravated public order offence" .
Furthermore, the does the anti-Azhar Facebook page owner and contributor, and other such blogs deserve equal treatment? | |
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Posted: 3/14/2012 10:29:01 AM |
I suggest you watch the recent documentary about the EDL scum in Luton.Look at the flags that were being carried. As ever anti zionism is twisted to be anti semitism. The usual ploy.I have no support for wars caused by the fascist ideology that is zionism. I can only assume that gross support for the holocaust of the Palestinian people is rife in your part of the world.
The only 'members' of the EDL I have spoken to have been mild mannered spiritualist types, I have no doubt that such a group would attract some extremists.
Also, and bear in mind I fully support a Palestinian state. There has been no holocaust of the Palestinian people. The holocaust was the systematic industrial slaughtering of millions, Israel did not do this. The irony is that if Israel had done this, and survived, very few people would actually care, but then that is human nature for you.
Do you have a link to what Mr Ahmed posted? | |
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