A senior member of the BNP who burned a copy of the Qur'an in his garden has been arrested following an investigation by the Observer.
Footage of the burning shows Sion Owens, 40, from south Wales and a candidate for the forthcoming Welsh Assembly elections, soaking the Qur'an in kerosene and setting fire to it.
A video clip of the act, leaked to the Observer and passed immediately to South Wales police, provoked fierce criticism from the government.
[Did the Observer pass this to the POLICE? The Observer, the home of Henry Porter, the banger on of liberal values?]
A statement from the Home Office said: "The government absolutely condemns the burning of the Qur'an. It is fundamentally offensive to the values of our pluralist and tolerant society.
[J S Mill Stage 1. The “values of our pluralist and tolerant society” includes the right to burn books you find objectionable. This guy burned it ins his garden, not outside a mosque.]
"We equally condemn any attempts to create divisions between communities and are committed to ensuring that everyone has the freedom to live their lives free from fear of targeted hostility or harassment on the grounds of a particular characteristic, such as religion."
Or a characteristic such as hostility towards a particular religion.
It’s unclear what Sion Owens was trying to do. Create controversy and division like the Rev Terry Jones? Make a daring video for shared viewing among BNP initiants like the beheading of infidels movies that jihadists love to watch? Jones’s act of burning of a Qu’ran was exploited by even nastier theocrats stirring up the devout. But what was a liberal newspaper like the Observer doing reporting this to the police? and what was a responsible newspaper doing giving an act designed to provoke a violent response any more publicity?
Update:-
I like BenSix's comment:-
what a sad indictment of the media that investigative journalism is now seen as rooting out obscure zealots holding bonfires in their gardens.
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