What are they fighting about?

Irony is in the air.

The white Christian (or at least non muslim) population of Europe continues to defend the right of a Danish newspaper to print cartoons ridiculing Mohammed. It's a free speech issue. The Muslim community is up in arms. A protest in London, outside the Danish Embassy this weekend saw Muslims from all over Britain in militant mood, expressing their concerns. One man, Omar Khayam, 22, even dressed as a suicide bomber for the occasion. There were many placards calling for the murder of blasphemers. The police attended, but no arrests were made. Actually, that's not quite true, two arrests were made, but they weren't muslims. Two people were arrested when they attempted to start a counter protest defending the Danish newspaper and the right of free speech.

People were angry, there were questions in the house about why muslims were allowed to protest in this way. Omar Khayam, the man dressed as a suicide bomber, was tracked down and made to apologise. The two people arrested for attempting to start a counter protest were interviewed on the Today programme on Radio 4.

And the irony I mentioned...

The Danish Newspaper caused controversy by printing these cartoons. It was an exercise in freedom of expression and the paper continues to defend its right to print the material. Omar Khayam was the focus of a man hunt after he had the audacity to dress as a suicide bomber to protest against the actions of the Danish newspaper. That was also an exercise in freedom of expression, though he has apologised. Two people were arrested for protesting about a protest against the Danish newspaper's right to freedom of expression. It seems whatever one says, someone takes offence to it and that freedom of expression becomes precarious.

What do I think? I think just about everyone is overreacting. I don't care about the cartoons, I don't care about an idiot dressed as a suicide bomber, and I don't care who was offended by anything that has been said or done. I do care deeply about freedom of expression. I care that I live in a country where a woman was arrested for reading aloud the names of the British soldiers killed in Iraq in a public place. I care that the government of my country used terrorism legislation to arrest an old man at a public conference for telling an elected politician he was talking rubbish, which I might add, he was.

How will this story end? It emerged this morning that Omar Khayam was on parole. He is a convicted drug dealer, realeased less than a year ago. He has since been rearrested and there is some question about whether he has violated his parole. He may return to prison. I listened to him making an apology for his actions. He wasn't sorry or ashamed for what he did. He was reading from a cue card clearly written for him by someone, probably his local MP who was with him at the time. He is of low intelligence and almost certainly only in it for the rumble. The Danish newspaper hasn't even apologised, nor will it as far as I can see. It doesn't care about Islam, or free speech, it cares only about how many copies it can sell. So, exactly what are they all fighting about?