Six guilty of terrorism support

Six guilty of terrorism support (BBC News, Thursday, 17 April 2008)

Let me be clear about this, I intensely dislike these islamofascists and all they stand for. And yet, it is a sad day for free speech that some of them were convicted of nothing more than 'inciting terrorism overseas', or in other words, for remarking that the invasion of Iraq was not quite legitimate.

During World War II, the British actively supported the French Resistance. Especially the communist movements were involved in guerrilla warfare against the German forces, and after the war, resistance fighters were treated as heros, in France and in Britain alike. (For those who lack any historical awareness: yes, the French communist resistance did actually exist and is not just a fabrication of 'Allo 'Allo!.)

In a moral sense, there is no comparison between resistance movements in occupied Europe in World War II and the mixed bunch of maniacs who wreak havoc in Iraq in the name of some psychopathic child molester from the dark ages. Formally however, some of the insurgents could well claim to act out of the same motivations as the French Resistance, namely kicking out occupiers who have no business being there.

The men on trial in Kingston Crown Court were not insurgents but were sympathetic to insurgents, and that is against the law these days. What is next? Should people who are sympathetic to people who are sympathetic to insurgents be put in jail too? In that case, could this post get me in trouble? Somehow, I don't think so, as my skin is white, my name is British, and you won't find me anywhere near a mosque. So what's the problem?