Reggae singers & Muslim clerics allowed to incite the murder of queers.
The police now claim they take homophobic hate crimes seriously. Why, then, do they permit bigots to advocate the murder of queers?
Reggae stars and Muslim clerics are allowed to openly urge the killing of lesbian and gay people. The police refuse to arrest them. Equal protection for homos? Not bloody likely.
I am glad the police march in Pride parades, advertise in the pink press, and publish new guides on tackling homophobic hate crimes.
But then I think to myself: isn’t it all just police PR? Most officers are not serious about stamping out violent threats against the LGBT community. It is all a fu*cking con.
Eight leading Jamaican reggae singers – big stars like Buju Banton, Sizzla and Beenie Man – have put out CDs variously calling for the shooting, burning, drowning and hanging of “batty men” (faggots). Their CDs incite the murder of queers, which is a criminal offence. Yet these CDs are on sale in record stores all over the country, and are played quite openly by black music stations.
The police don’t give a damn. They refuse to prosecute the singers, record companies, record stores and radio stations.
For three years, officers have been sitting on a file complied by queer rights group OutRage!. It contains enough evidence to jail the bigots who promote this “murder music”.
Nothing has happened. Why? Senior police officers, together with the Home Secretary and the Crown Prosecution Service, have vetoed legal action. They say it is a “racially sensitive” issue. They don’t want to upset the black communities.
Pardon? Race has got nothing to do with it. No one is protesting against this music because of the race of the singers. Our objection is because the songs incite homophobic violence and murder.
Imagine how the police would react if a gay singer called for the killing of black people? Quite rightly, he would be arrested and jailed. Why won’t the police and government give gays and lesbians the same protection?
Similar double standards are evident with regard to Muslim fundamentalists who urge the murder of “sodomites”. Lots of mosques and Islamic bookshops openly sell literature urging the killing of LGBT Muslims.
This is a crime under UK law. But the police do nothing. They fear being accused of Islamophobia. The Muslim community deserves police protection from violent threats – but officers won’t give the gay community the same protection.
Muslim cleric, Abdullah el-Faisal, called for the murder of Jews, Hindus and non-believers. He was promptly arrested by the police, and was convicted and jailed in 2003. In contrast, when a senior cleric at the Central London Mosque advocated the “execution” of queers, the police never batted an eyelid.
True, some officers do care about the LGBT community. But they have no power. Not even a gay senior officer like Brian Paddick can get serious action against homophobic hate crimes.
Next time you hear the police claiming to be on the side of the queer community, tell them to prove it by arresting the reggae and Muslim fanatics who incite our murder. Let them know that we expect the equal protection of the law, and will settle for nothing less.