I am one of those people who would gladly see the back of the Today programme's Thought for the Day. (But to be active on it would turn me into one of those people who campaigns about Radio 4's output shudders...). When doctors ask that slightly embarrassing question about regularity, I'm often tempted to reply "during Thought for the Day..."
There are one or two worth listening to. I like Rabbi Jonathan Sachs. Okay, I like Rabbi Lionel Blue, too. So, perhaps we could rearrange it as Rabbi's Thought for the Day. There's a thought.
I can't stand the 'trendy vicars' be they Evangelical Christians or Sikhs, who use any excuse for a metaphor. When England won the Ashes, I nearly vomited at the twee allegories this produced from too many of the preachers that invade my bedroom uninvited.
There's another speaker who is often on, a chap called John Bell, who I usually find acceptable. I would still prefer to do without the homilies, but his outlook tends to be one of respect for the oppressed. So I was seething with anger yesterday when he raised the issue of the Cartoons. His argument seemed to be that printing these cartoons, which are deemed offensive to Moslems, was equivalent to printing cartoons satirising Jewish victims of the Holocaust or sexual abuse victims.
I simply cannot accept that analogy as valid in anyway whatsoever.
People choose to be Moslem. It is a belief system with an intellectual basis. Being a victim is not something that people choose, whether as a victim of the Holocaust, or of sexual abuse, or of anything else.
Not that I am saying that there is any justification for Religious Persecution. There is an element of Religious Hatred which is tantamount to racism, or, at least stems from the same hating gene as racism. This is recognised in English Law with discrimination against Jews and Sikhs being outlawed on the grounds of racial discrimination, as a way of ensuring that the law applies equally in the case of non-worshipping, non-believing Sikhs and Jews. A friend of Jimmy's, who is from a Hindu background, is concerned that the current furore and displays of anger will again make him target for the racism that is disguised as righteous protest against Moslems.
I am sorry I missed Newsnight the other night, which included a Roundtable Discussion between a spokeshench for that bloke with a hook who finally got convicted of being murderous bastard. Others in the debate included Ann Cryer, the estimable MP for Keighley, a former Conservative Parliamentary candidate - a Moslem woman - and a male Moslem academic from Oxbridge. I am reliably informed that the henchthug's arguments boiled down to the women being insufficiently covered and the chap having insufficient of a beard.
I wish I could remember on whose blog I read the comment "Were the Religious Hatred Bill to become law could people be prosecuted under it for bringing their own religion into disrepute...?" It would be interesting, but could the Court Service cope with the deluge?
