UPDATE: He got seventy days in prison. (Thanks to Brian of London)
He apparently stole the book from the library and should faces charges for that. But I don’t think that burning a book is in itself illegal in Britain. So he is actually facing sentencing for “religiously aggravated harassment.” In British Newspeak, that means “doing something offensive to Muslims.” It is virtually certain that if he had burned a Bible, he wouldn’t be in the fix he is in today. And that makes this a Sharia Alert from the U.K.: “Man faces court for burning Koran,” from the Lytham St Annes Express, April 18 (thanks to Twostellas):
A man who burned a Koran in front of city centre shoppers in Carlisle is due to be sentenced.
Andrew Ryan, 32, took out a copy of the holy book from Carlisle library and then set it on fire with a lighter as a crowd gathered to hear his protests.
Police arrested Ryan, of Summerhill, Carlisle, shortly after the lunchtime incident in English Street on January 19.
He pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated harassment and theft at an earlier hearing….