This video is the trailer of the film Taking Liberties, about governmental threats to civil liberties in Britain.
By Chris Talbot:
British students jailed for possessing “extremist” literature
31 July 2007
Four 20-year-old Bradford University students and a 19-year-old school student were jailed after a trial at the Old Bailey for being found with material said to be “glorifying Islamic terrorism” on their computers. Aitzaz Zafar, Usman Malik and Awaab Iqbaal were jailed for three years each, Akbar Butt was jailed for 27 months and the school student, Mohammed Irfan Raja was given two years’ youth detention.
Such is the atmosphere created by politicians and the media after the attempted terror bombings in London and Glasgow earlier this month that there was very little opposition in the media to what are police state measures—the jailing of these youths merely for downloading material readily available on the Internet
The case is the first successful prosecution under the Terrorism Act 2000 for possessing material useful for terrorism.
Raja, at the age of 17, had run away from his home in London leaving a note to his parents saying, “if not in this [world] we will meet in [the Garden of Paradise]”. According to the prosecution, he was planning to go and fight in Afghanistan after training in Pakistan, and for that purpose he had joined the four students in Bradford. No serious evidence that this was anything more than an adolescent fantasy is reported.
His parents talked to him over the phone and persuaded him to return home after three days.
If the hateful propaganda of the nazi British National Party, members of which have been convicted for violent crimes, is freely available on the Internet, and some people say something against that, there is a deafening chorus in the big media: “Hands off! That’s free speech! That’s free speech!” No one has ever gone to jail for just one day for downloading hateful BNP stuff from the Internet.
The Turner Diaries, the US white supremacist racist fantasy of violence which has inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, is freely available on the Internet. No one has ever gone to jail for just one day for downloading it.
Adolf Hitler’s infamous Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, US capitalist Henry Ford’s The International Jew, and lots of other anti-Semitic and/or otherwise racist material, inciting to violence, is freely available on the Internet. No one has ever gone to jail for just one day for downloading it.
I have to make a confession. I myself have sometimes downloaded from the Internet freely available material by neo-conservatives and similar supporters of George W. Bush’s wars. Does that make me an accomplice in the killing of over 655,000 and counting in Iraq? in the sexual torture of children by US soldiers in Abu Ghraib jail? No, I oppose these atrocities and I wanted to have a look at how twisted the minds of Bush’s apologists are exactly. Some of the people downloading Bushist material from the Internet probably agree with it. Has any of them ever gone to jail for that for just one day?
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Tuesday 7th August, 2007
Muslims, Jews lock horns over ritual slaughter of animals in Australia
ANI Tuesday 7th August, 2007
Sydney, Aug.7 : Muslims and Jews in Australia have locked horns with each other over the ritual slaughter of animals, even as the John Howard Government announced a review of the practice last week.
While the Australian Federation of Islamic Council (AFIC) has said that Muslims in Australia have no issue with animals being slaughtered in an unconscious state, Kosher Australia, which represents Jews and their way of life, has deemed it as unacceptable.
AFIC is an organisation that oversees halal meat certification in Australia, and said the slaughter of animals with electrical stunning is acceptable to it.
“According to Islam, we have to respect the law of the country,” The Age quoted AFIC halal services manager, Mohamed Rahman, as saying.
Under the current standard for ritual slaughter in Australia, animals are stunned before their throats are slit for halal meat or immediately afterwards for kosher meat. However, export abattoir Midfield Meats and three Victorian domestic abattoirs have special arrangements to slaughter without any form of stunning.
Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick, the rabbinic administrator of Kosher Australia and president of the Organisation of Rabbis in Australasia, said the Jewish method of slaughter without stunning is not cruel.
“We believe that the Jewish method of slaughter in itself is humane and pain free and this belief is supported by numerous scientific studies,” he said.
“Slaughter without stunning is allowed in many countries, such as the US and Britain, and as such, we see no reason to oppose those who wish to conduct such slaughter here, provided always that this is also in accordance with current Australian Government policies and regulations.
Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran announced a review of the standard on ritual slaughter on Friday.
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