Cartoon demonstrator now singing a not so merry melody
Umran Javed, a British Muslim from Birmingham, has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of stirring up racial hated during a demonstration against the infamous Danish cartoons. The BBC reports:
Javed told a crowd of hundreds at the February 2006 protest: "Bomb, bomb Denmark, bomb, bomb USA."No doubt now we will now get demonstrations calling for Javed's release.
He had claimed the chants against the two countries were "just slogans" and that he regretted saying them.
Remanding him in custody, Judge Brian Barker said he would not pass sentence until several other trials relating to the protest had concluded - expected to be in April.
The maximum penalty for soliciting murder is life in prison.
Most the press coverage - for example the Daily Telegraph and the Times - is as yet straightforward factual reporting, but the Guardian's Comment is Free section runs a weird piece about the case and post modernist irony; make of it what you will.
It seems a safe bet Javed will be released on appeal, when the fuss has died down.
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