Another Islamic cleric gets jail time for his thoughts

    Bad boy Islamic cleric Abu Hamza all-Masri was slapped with a seven-year sentence for his thoughts. Masri's crime, according to British Judge Anthony Hughes, as quoted in The New York Times of February 8, 2006, was that "he had 'created at atmosphere' in which murder was perceived by some as 'not only a legitimate course but a moral and religious duty in pursuit of perceived justice.'" Most religions support some kind of just war doctrine, so it would seem as if a lot of clerics of all faiths are about to be indicted for similar crimes. Furthermore, it would appear that the government, in order to implement some rather odd laws on the books, would begin surveillance of the hundreds of thousands of churches, synagogues and mosques, let alone Buddhist temples and Taoist shrines, in order to make sure folks are not preachin' hate! Not to worry. Masri is of the Moslem faith, which is the target of these government operations, as countries the majority of whose citizens are of that particular religious persuasion sit on so much oil. Indonesia and the Middle East account for a very major chunk of the world's energy reserves in the form of petroleum. Not that it's just about oil. But if Moslems perceive that the West is at war with Islam, they are probably not far off the mark.
    Masri, according to The Times, was also convicted of inciting racial hatred and of possessing a ten-volume document of some sort that was a no-no, having as it did so many really bad bad things in it.
    The good news, if there is any in this latest case of thought crime prosecution, and mind you, Masri-style thoughts that are quite common among the general population, is that British juris prudence limited the sentence to seven years, which might mean that, if the conviction sticks, Masri could be out in three and a half. That's a far cry from the rather draconian sentences, generally life, handed down for similar thought and free-speech crimes committed in the United States.
    Another piece of good news is that Masri's attorneys are fighting his extradition to the United States to face more trumped up charges. Let's hope the bogus U.S. Justice Department torture masters don't get ahold of this fellow, or the smoldering embers that are becoming the start of World War III will burst into flames. Not that these government honchos on either side of the Atlantic give a fig. Most of them are drunk much of the time. Stumbling and drooling over themselves at the latest Washington cocktail party, they really don't know what's going on, and besides, they see foreign policy more as elitist blood sport  than as a public responsibility, in contrast to those who send our sons and daughters to be killed and to kill in war, whose salaries are essentially docked to extract the latest fees for support of murderous interventions in foreign lands, and who get creamed in such ventures as the destruction of the World Trade Center towers.
    Those in power think they're safe, but occasionally they get blasted or knocked off too, like that poor newscaster who got a dose of reality recently after he and his comrade camera man were blasted into incapacitation in Iraq. Go figure. The criminally neurotic-psychotic should be under restraint for their own good, but instead they are running the government.