Islamic group plan protest march through Wootton Bassett.

The leader of a controversial Islamic group has vowed to continue with plans for a march through Wootton Bassett despite repeated calls to drop the idea


Civic leaders asked Anjem Choudary of Islam4UK to reconsider his proposal for 500 members to walk through the town's High Street carrying empty coffins.

A Facebook site dedicated to preventing the march has already attracted more than 120,000 members.

Mr Choudary - who wants Britain to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan - has responded on his website re-stating why it should go ahead.

In a long letter entitled "To the families of British soldiers who have fallen", he also misspells Wootton Bassett.

Mr Choudary, 42, a former lawyer, said: "It is worth reminding those who are still not blinded by the media propaganda that Afghanistan is not a British Town near Wootton Basset.

"It is) a Muslim land which no one has the right to occupy, with a Muslim population who do not deserve their innocent men, women and children to be killed for political mileage.

"The procession in Wootton Basset is therefore an attempt to engage the British publics minds on the real reasons why their soldiers are returning home in body bags and the real cost of the war."

Earlier, he said the event - if allowed by police - would be a peaceful one and would not coincide with the return of a dead soldier's body

Hundreds of people line the market town's High Street regularly to pay their respects as the bodies of servicemen are driven past from RAF Lyneham.

Ex-mayor and councillor Chris Wannell said of the march: "We don't do what we do at Wootton Bassett for any political reason at all but to pay our respects to those who have given their lives for our freedom.

"We are a traditional old English market town who honour very much our Queen and country. If this man has any decency about him he will not hold a march through Wootton Bassett."

The Facebook group states: "The Highway for Heroes and wonderful people of WB do not deserve this march to happen.

"This group can march anywhere it wishes in the country but have chosen to cause outrage and offence."

Wiltshire Police - who have yet to make a decision on the march - say they are aware of the "significant community concern" caused by the proposal

How can this cause, "outrage and offence"?

Seriously..?

Have you never seen the repatriation ceremonies.....?

If they want to do it they should do it somewhere more else, its aimed to cause maximum upset because of the setting.......

Could you tell me WHY you (and so many people) feel the way you do?
I don't get it and it's really not something you can understand without asking...

How I come accross as 'smart' is beyond me... I'd go with foolish, bordering on plain stupidity; but nevermind that.

I genuinely don't see the problem with the demonstration itself and I'll ask (once again) for someone to enlighten me.
How else am I going to learn?

Moving this to the discussion thread.......

I'd feel the same if a load of injured marines went and demonstrated outside a mosque........its inflammatory for its own sake and just to create headlines....

I dont have a rascist bone in my body, but i have to say, if i lived in a country and did or said anywhere near the same thing, i couldnt complain if they fucked me off to my friends and brothers ( muslim, christian or otherwise ) on the first plane.....they like Afghanistan, Iraq or any other country far more than the one that feeds and clothes it, then theres only one option for them surely...

quote,,It is) a Muslim land which no one has the right to occupy,,quote

this is a Christian land which no one has the right to occupy

I think it's bloody disgraceful too!

I'll state again that I am in no way racist but I can quiet easily see where the race card would come into play. If I were to go and stand outside a mosque and shouted and screamed my points of view with placards and banners about Al Qaeda and Muslims killing our men I would be absolutely slaughtered for it and arrested for racism. Why should it be any different the other way around?

Wootton Bassett is now recognised as the first stage of a funeral for our fallen soldiers, what the people of the village do is very respectful, it is not done as a political demonstration, purely as a way of giving back to the boys (and that's all they are) who were brave enough to protect our country. Why can we not have a nice tradition for a sad occasion in our own country?

As others have said, if you are a foreigner to our shores you should respect our culture, we are asked to respect it in other countries and quite often recently it seems that we are far too polite to speak up about these issues for fear of the backlash. To me, it's a blatant "in your face" racist protest which is only designed to fuel hatred.


Does that it explain it any clearer to you T?

I'd be very interested to hear your opinion now you have ours

I think I'd better refrain from posting any more (at least for now); I just wanted to let it be known that I wasn't 'trolling' or trying to make light of the situation...

Would it not be easier to explain it the way you see it then we can maybe understand your viewpoint? I know you say you don't get it but there must surely be reasons why you don't?

The discussion thread is a place for ALL members to air their views and no one is right or wrong, sometimes several members will agree together but not everyone will. It does not pay for us to be the same.......you point is just as valid and I for one would like to hear it.

Ok...

First of all, I am in no way defending Anjem Choudary or Islam4UK - I think their general message and focus are misguided and in a lot of cases vile.
I also do not believe that a social, political or personal system based on submission to a deity that may or may not exist has a place in the world I'd like to live in (not exclusive to Islam).

The actual demonstration, as I read it, was proposed as 500 or so people peacefully carrying coffins - symbolic of those that have lost their lives - on a date picked such as not to disrupt the repatriation ceremonies. Call me naive, but beyond that was speculation, was it not?

I think that the issue is one far too often forgotten by some, and blatantly ignored by a lot more people than you may think.

I also think that the procession taking place in Wootton Bassett is a good idea, as it is somewhat indicative of people being people. People feel the pain of warfare; people wish (and deserve) to pay their respects to those lost; people are people regardless of skin colour, belief or geography.
In my opinion, to be offended by the location is to place the tag of 'inferior' on the non-British lives and that makes me feel ill. Sorry.

However, I think this thread raises several points of difference in our way of thinking...

Quote :

If you don't think there is anything wrong with
an Islamic group holding a protest where all the soldiers that have
died fighting for THIS country are driven through so the people can show their respects for them you should be having a word with yourself.

This is our country and if the foreign people
who live here don't like what we do they should fuck off back to their
own shit hole of a country and have a fuck'n wonderful life.

- I don't think religion has anything to do with the right to protest.
- I am not a nationalist, much less a jingoist.
- [More of a comment than a difference] Anjem Choudary was born in London.

Quote :

I'd feel the same if a load of injured marines went and demonstrated
outside a mosque........its inflammatory for its own sake and just to
create headlines....

I dont have a rascist bone in my body, but
i have to say, if i lived in a country and did or said anywhere near
the same thing, i couldnt complain if they fucked me off to my friends
and brothers ( muslim, christian or otherwise ) on the first
plane.....they like Afghanistan, Iraq or any other country far more
than the one that feeds and clothes it, then theres only one option for
them surely...

- I don't see all Muslims as the enemy.
- I think that all of the lives lost deserve headlines.
- [more of a comment than a difference] If you are a citizen surely you have every right to complain about being deported for expressing your views.

Quote :

this is a Christian land which no one has the right to occupy

- I think it's debatable if it is, but don't think that a nation state should conform to any religion anyway.
- [more of a comment than a difference] Didn't Christianity come to Britain during (and as a result of) the Roman occupation anyway?

Quote :

I think it's bloody disgraceful too!

I'll state again that I am
in no way racist but I can quiet easily see where the race card would
come into play. If I were to go and stand outside a mosque and shouted
and screamed my points of view with placards and banners about Al Qaeda
and Muslims killing our men I would be absolutely slaughtered for it
and arrested for racism. Why should it be any different the other way
around?

Wootton Bassett is now recognised as the first stage of
a funeral for our fallen soldiers, what the people of the village do is
very respectful, it is not done as a political demonstration, purely as
a way of giving back to the boys (and that's all they are) who were
brave enough to protect our country. Why can we not have a nice
tradition for a sad occasion in our own country?

As others have
said, if you are a foreigner to our shores you should respect our
culture, we are asked to respect it in other countries and quite often
recently it seems that we are far too polite to speak up about these
issues for fear of the backlash. To me, it's a blatant "in your face"
racist protest which is only designed to fuel hatred.


Does that it explain it any clearer to you T?

I'd be very interested to hear your opinion now you have ours

- Again, I don't see all Muslims as the enemy.
- [more of a comment than a difference] Wouldn't it be ridiculous if you were arrested for racism for shouting and screaming outside a mosque considering that Islam is a religion, not a race? Indicative of police ignorance?
- [more of a comment than a difference] You wouldn't have a ceremony like that for Hitler, or the like (British or otherwise); so, doesn't that make the ceremonies themselves praise of the war? I.E political.
- [more of a comment than a difference] The soldiers role and actions are debatable.
- I do believe in traditions, but cannot see how they would be ruined by this.
- [more of a comment than a difference] Again, Anjem Choudary was born in London.
- [more of a comment than a difference] The protest is aimed at the military powers that be/politicians and to raise awareness within the British public, not a race of people, how can it be described as racist?

NB If you haven't already I would listen to Anjem Choudary's interview on Radio 5 Live (it's Qi).

Before you get your pitchforks out please bear in mind that I said all along that I don't understand it. Don't be too hard on me...

Thanks for that T, you make some very good and interesting points.

I think on the whole that we should ignore the facts of religion and race, this is nothing to do with either of those, it just so happens to be a group that is in the world spotlight that wants to protest, my belief is that if it were the Lib Dems or Greenpeace or CND or any other group protesting there it would still in my eyes be wrong. It's disrespectful, nothing more and nothing less, just a way of bringing that group the media attention they require, getting maximum effect.

Muslim group Islam4UK has cancelled controversial plans to hold an anti-war march through the town of Wootton Bassett which honours repatriated soldiers.

The Islamic organisation had wanted to carry coffins but their proposals received widepread criticism.

MPs had urged local authorities and the Home Secretary to step in to prevent the march.

And Prime Minister Gordon Brown had condemned the proposed demonstration as "abhorrent and offensive."

Islam4UK said the march was aimed at highlighting the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan and it said it had done this "successfully".

In a statement, leader Anjem Choudary also said the group had engaged with thousands of ordinary people through its website and via blogs, phone calls and emails on the reality of the conflict


But it added: "We at Islam4UK have decided, after consultation with others, including our Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, that no more could be achieved even if a procession were to take place in Wootton Bassett.

"And in light of this we would like to announce today that there will no longer be a procession through this market town."

It added: "This does not mean that we will remain silent on the atrocities being committed in Afghanistan under the guise of fighting for freedom and democracy.

"And it also does not mean that we will not continue to highlight the true cost of this war against Islam and Muslims called fighting terrorism."

I'm glad that the group has seen sense in the matter, it's good to see that even they have seen it as "a step to far" even if they don't openly admit to it. Obviously someone somewhere has had a word in their ear.

In the above statement I can see their point of view ...lives are being lost from all sides not just British soldiers and we should remember that but Wootton Bassett was just not the place for it to be highlighted, they should protest at Downing Street, it is the Government that make the mess, not us ordinary folk who have to deal with the clean up.