"So. let's see Jim, when did the British last arrest anyone for letting someone else call their teddy-bear "Mohammed" - or any other name?"
Never, in my experience Richard.
But the British authorities have been responsible for returning refugees back into the hands of murderous regimes and allowing them to die in prisons and torture chambers, or simply of hunger and neglect. Along with the US, our government has supported many of those regimes politically and financially and the British and US public have by and large stayed silent and indifferent.
Doesn't it not strike you as odd that Saudi Arabia, one of the great abusers of human rights, is counted among our greatest allies.
Such abuses (now where did I read about the rape victim who has been sentenced to 200 lashes?), have been going on unchecked (and quite openly) for a long time without the UK or the US Governments batting an eyelid - how about a song about that (or would that affect our oil supply)?
Jim Carroll
PS As an Irish resident, I can see the same double standards operating here, with the added irony that at present the government here is pulling out all the stops to get the US to issue illegal Irish residents with work permits.