Burning of the poppy...

Rememberance Day. Armistice Day. Veterans Day. A day for us all to pay our respects to the members of the armed forces and and civilians who lost their lives fighting for our country. As you all know, we remember this day by a two minute silence on the 11th November at 11am, and the vast majority of us wearing a poppy. So imagine my surprise seeing a group of protesters at Hyde Park setting fire to a large, decorative poppy and chanting during the nation's two minute silence. Disgraceful.




A group of 35 Muslims, part of "Muslims against Crusades" today burnt a poppy at protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This occured during the silence held at 11am. They held up posters saying, "Hands off Muslim Lands" and "Islam will dominate". There was also a flag raised with, "There is no God but Allah" written in bold writing across it. I can understand why they are upset, afterall we have bombarded their country with troops. We went to Iraq to fundamentally get rid of Sadaam Hussain for his unspeakable crimes and successfully felled him, as well as his ties to Al Qaeda and the weapons of mass destruction at his disposal. The Afghan war was primarily the war against Terror after the September 11th attacks. Perfectly legitimate reasons to go to war, well at least sort it out and do something about it. However stopping Al Qaeda was a much for diffuclt task. Their group is growing all the time and we know they are positioned all over the world. I hate to say it but I fear we have been short on getting to the bottom of this and we are in danger of a wave of fresh attacks. Today the Muslim protestors called our soldiers, the people fighting aginst terror for us and the world, and I quote..."Terrorists"...hmm

Despite all of this, the protests were completely and utterly out of order. Imagine if you will some British people in Iraq or Afghanistan, planning a protest against Islam and in the process of protesting, they set fire to their flag or a flag bearing Allah's name on it...if you can't set the scene, I don't blame you. That's because we wouldn't do it. It's not in our nature. Mind you, if we did, we would probably die there and then, where as in our country you can exercise the right to protest no matter who you are or where you are from. I thought the students destroying Millbank was bad but this just doesn't compare. It really does put it into perspective.

Since protesting earlier today, they have vowed 'not to stop'. That is just a very short summary of what they actually said.....take a look at their website for the full press release and reasons for their protest....it really is worth a look, believe me. I must warn you though, there are some graphic images on the site...

http://muslimsagainstcrusades.com/

The protest resulted in three arrests, one for assulting a police officer. I cannot believe this country allows protests such as this, especially on a day when we remember those who have lost their lives fighting for the country. The reason we are here today is because of those brave enough to fight. I cannot even find the words to describe my feelings on the events today, it is literally indescribable. A selfish event that should never have been allowed to take place. When it comes to things like this, this country needs to do something about it. The day is rememberance day, and all we will remember are the Muslim protests and the burning of the poppy - the symbol of this country's losses.

Ben x