Thursday, April 13, 2006

Stupid is as stupid does

Today, it officially became illegal to glorify terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2006 (pdf).
Encouragement of terrorism
(1) This section applies to a statement that is likely to be understood by some or all of the members of the public to whom it is published as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to them to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism or Convention offences.

(2) A person commits an offence if—
(a) he publishes a statement to which this section applies or causes another to publish such a statement; and
(b) at the time he publishes it or causes it to be published, he—
(i) intends members of the public to be directly or indirectly encouraged or otherwise induced by the statement to commit, prepare or instigate acts of terrorism or Convention offences; or
(ii) is reckless as to whether members of the public will be directly or indirectly encouraged or otherwise induced by the statement to commit, prepare or instigate such acts or offences.

(3) For the purposes of this section, the statements that are likely to be understood by members of the public as indirectly encouraging the commission or preparation of acts of terrorism or Convention offences include every statement which—
(a) glorifies the commission or preparation (whether in the past, in the future or generally) of such acts or offences; and
(b) is a statement from which those members of the public could reasonably be expected to infer that what is being glorified is being glorified as conduct that should be emulated by them in existing circumstances.
This guy had the right idea. Sometimes it is necessary to take decisive action against an objectionable government. If he'd been successful, it would have been one of the truly glorious moments in world history. Even though it failed, it was certainly the right thing to do. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, I salute you. It was a glorious effort.

*waits for police*

PS. I have checked. This action would certainly qualify as terrorism under UK law (as laid out in the Terrorism Act 2000). In fact, the whole Second World War would also fit the bill. No more V.E. day celebrations for us.

Update
More fun with glorification from Jago.


Tags: , ,

No comments: