Today, several newspapers and news websites in the UK published stories about new tough rules about 'preachers of hate' entering the country. "The measures, set out in a written ministerial statement by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, will make it easier to exclude those who want to come to the UK to stir up religious or racial hatred," writes The Guardian. The people who are not able to prove to not support extremist religious or ideological groups, will be denied permission to enter the country.According to The Guardian it will cover anti-abortionists, animal rights extremists and neo-Nazis as well as extremist clerics...
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary stated that "Coming to the UK is a privilege and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life," as said on the BBC News site.Since 2005 230 people have barred from entering the UK.
The Financial Times has a say.
So does The Independent.
And Daily Mail most has something to say as well.
They all focus on the issue in a fairly similar way. I find the BBC News the most objective in this issue, nevertheless. Maybe I am biased myself, since I like that news portal.
What comes to my mind with this hype is that why did the government think of it now, when the damage is long done? Will this new regulation result in actual rise in security in the country, or will it be another inconvenient struggle for the 'mortal' people when they're travelling? I remember when I had to travel to USA last summer, I literally had to go through 3 extensive security checks, shoes off, strip, metal detectors and all that. Obviously I did not have any devious ideas to take to the other side of the Atlantic, but those, who would have wanted to do harm, could have easily blown themselves up right in the middle of those massive queues before security checks, killing hundreds of people, if not thousands (took place in Frankfurt airport).
I don't even want to imagine in my worst nightmares what the picture would look like if we had to start proving we are not involved in some alternative cults or what not.. I truly hope the government has some controlled information about the people who should and will be controlled in the future.
Another aspect to the issue is that the people (same system with those airport security checks) who would actually want to preach their evil beliefs might not really speak out loud before the real action. Putting myself in a situation where I would want to push forward an idea that is far from conventional, I would rather shut up about it before I get the chance to speak up, or then use some alternative routes for reaching my target audience, something that falls in the blindspot of the government. I think this is a bold case of underestimation from the government's part.
The third problem: human rights. What happened to the basic humane freedom and rights? Is it threatening to truly believe in something in nowadays uber modern world, when equality and freedom is so highly discussed? This ban is against everything the 21st century world struggles towards ideologically.
Do not get me wrong, I do not support terrorists or any other extreme groups that use unethical and illegal ways to bring their messages to the world. I believe the whole world has gotten a bit out of hands today, and something must be done about it. However, what I do not believe in, is those radical threatening things being won through radical measures. The reaction to this tactic could be much worse than letting those 'advocates of dangerous ideas' in the country. Usually the worst still manages to slip through high security, 9-11 and 7-7 are definitely good examples of that...
All of this just makes me wonder again: what went wrong in the world?
