I was, of course, referring to their right to protest/ to free of speech and freedom of thought. I thought 'right to be misguided' nicely summed up that package of rights.
Go back through the thread - more than one person has implied just that.
They really do. Whilst I would not go as far as the famous Voltaire quote, every man woman and child in this country has a right to peaceful protest.
There are Muslims within the British army so already this is a case of Muslim's against ('demonising' was picked I'm sure purely for it being emotive) other Muslims. As long as the people protesting are not directly attacking the religious beliefs of another, their sexuality, sex, disability or race then I see no problem with any sort of peaceful protest. It is 'our' democratic right - why do you seek to impinge on it?
You clearly do not understand the meaning of hate speech within this country. Exercising your right to protest is not hate speech.
Who are these 'representatives' of the Muslim community? Islam does not have a formal structure similar to Christianity. The Muslim Council of Britain seems to come out very strongly against terrorism IMHO. In any case, when Harold Shipman killed did you see doctor's hold a rally pointing out that this was not part of their beliefs, when the Moors murders occured did the whole of the north march on parliament to say 'this isn't what we're really like'? Did, instead, people realise that these people killing others and themselves are isolated crazies and have no connection with the beliefs of the wider community?
