“Britons urge crackdown on Muslim protesters,” from the Washington Post, with thanks to DC Watson:
LONDON, Feb. 6 – “Behead the one who insults the prophet,” read one placard a Muslim protester held at a weekend demonstration here against cartoon depictions of Islam’s prophet Muhammad. “Butcher those who mock Islam,” and “Be Prepared for the Real Holocaust,” read other signs. One demonstrator wore a mock suicide vest, seven months after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 other people in London.
These protesters are now at the center of an impassioned debate here about whether British police should arrest them for inciting violence. Moderate Muslim leaders have joined in condemning the extremists and calling for their arrest.
“Let us be clear,” David Davis, a leader of the opposition Conservative Party, said Monday. “Placards carrying the slogans calling for people who insult Islam to be ‘beheaded’ or ‘massacred’ or ‘annihilated’ are direct incitements to violence.” Davis added, “I do expect that action should be taken against those who have clearly incited violence, and taken soon.”…
But while some people praised Scotland Yard for judiciously avoiding violence by not arresting extremists on the spot, others said they feared that police are so worried about Muslim violence they are backing off enforcement of the country’s laws.
“Of course there is a double standard,” said Phil Edwards, a spokesman for the anti-immigration British National Party, whose leader was put on trial and acquitted of charges of inciting racial hatred for calling Islam a “wicked, vicious faith.” Edwards said while its people were prosecuted for saying such words, the Muslim protesters “say they are going to kill us all and the police do nothing. It’s pathetic.”