Bang Up the Pope

When the Pope arrives here for his state visit, should he not be arrested for his views about buggery? Or at the least be interviewed by the old bill?

The Pope has called homosexuality a “moral evil” and that saving mankind from sodomy is as important as saving the rainforests. Further, homosexuality could lead to the “destruction” of the human race.

In January 2006, the then boss of the Muslim Council of Britain, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, was interviewed by police following much milder comments about homosexuality which he, perhaps unwisely, gave vent to on the BBC PM programme. The filth were alerted under the terms of the 1986 Public Order Act, which makes it a crime to whip up hatred against the gays. Punishing Sir Iqbal for restating a principle tenet of Islam, mind, seems to me to be in contravention of the 2006 Race and Religious Hatred Act, which requires us to be nice about the religion and respect its ideology. Either way, though, I don’t quite see the legal justification for allowing the Pope to get away with it and harassing the Muslims. Or indeed the fundamentalist proddies – you may remember that the giggling evangelistic bigot Stephen Green was arrested in Cardiff for handing out leaflets suggesting that queers would burn in hell for eternity, or some such rubbish. Green pointed out that he was merely quoting from the bible: how can you arrest someone for doing that? But arrested he was.

You might argue, of course, that we should be a bit more circumspect when dreaming up legislation designed to force us all to love one another in an inclusive and non-judgmental manner. But we are where we are. And so when the Pope arrives, will there be a tap on his shoulder and a quietly stated: “allo allo allo – what have we got here then, Holy Father?”