Sometimes My Government Embarrasses Me

Now this post is in no way related to any of the aforementioned topics, nor is it something you would expect me to comment on, however after watching the 10 o'clock news on the BBC I feel compelled to write about it.

Abu Hamza has won his so-called "right" to keep and maintain a British passport.

I am utterly speechless at this! Nay. Make that outraged. He has claimed that being stripped of his UK passport would render him "stateless", as his country of birth, Egypt, have already done so. I'm not entirely sure of how all these inter-government laws work, but I would imagine your country of birth is, and always will be, responsible for you. Albeit as his crimes against the UK were committed here, he must serve his time here, it does not mean that upon his release he should be welcomes back into the open arms of our extremely generous country - the one that without question gave him a passport based on compassion, as he gained his British status through marriage.

This is also the same country that only gave him seven years imprisonment for crimes of soliciting to murder, stirring up racial hate, and possessing terrorist hate text that has was made into a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act of 2000. Several other countries, including our long term allies, The U.S. would have been much tougher.

But, the caring (and somewhat idiotic it would seem) country that we are, granted him permission to retain his status as a British Citizen. His children are taught £9000 worth of education here - something he obviously feels is good enough to warrant that level of expense. He was educated here in Brighton, studying Civil Engineering. He lived a somewhat western lifestyle in the UK on and off for over 25 years, reaping the benefits of the western culture. Freedom. Support. Safety. All the things we take for granted.

Then, he married in 1984 to which he bore seven children. These were all born in British hospitals, delivered by British midwives, paid for, by the British government. Benefits that not every country provide. Few countries provide a health service such as ours - damning reports, campaigns and complaints aside, given that aside from tax it is a free service, it is something that is actually quite special.

After this (and I assure many other benefits being happily and readily accepted from the systems in place here) he incited hatred towards the Western culture, against the British public, and against anything that was not Islam. Happily encouraging the murder of the average British person - with the ideal outcome being what? Mass conversion to Islam? Surely we would already be tainted with sin, so that cannot be the outcome he was looking for. A mass wipe out of entire cultures, nations evaporated? Well, several times we have seen this, Germany 1939 is a good place to start. Insane is not even the word for this. Ludacris, baffling and horrendous would merely be the tip of the iceberg of words I would use to describe such actions. Then there was similar crimes in Oregon, U.S. to which the United States government wish to extradite him upon his release, so he may also be tried for there.

The above (and more) aside, now he wishes to keep his British Citizen's status? What on earth goes through this mans mind? If his home country of birth do not even wish to call him Egyptian, I am absolutely astounded as to why we would continue to call him British. Lets all take pity on the prospect of him being stateless - 'cause we're accommodating for things like that. We're more likely to make him some homemade soup on release and give him a nice hot water bottle. I mean - we did the same for Megrahi.

Well Abu, if you're reading this from your very comfortable, warm prison, with internet access (which would not surprise me) : Over my dead body will you keep your passport.

- Which, if he had his way, would be tomorrow.