Returning soldiers heckled by Muslim protesters in Dagenham

[-AMO-]

Returning soldiers heckled by protesters



Protesters heckled soldiers and brandished placards opposing the war in Afghanistan during a homecoming parade for troops today.


A group of predominantly Muslim protesters gathered in Barking town centre, in east London, as members of the 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment marched through the streets.


One witness said: "There were about 25 to 50 Muslim protesters carrying placards with things like 'Muslims Against Crusades' and 'British Soldiers Go To Hell'.


"Then there was a counter-protest of about 100 guys barracking them."


A Metropolitan Police spokesman said two people had been arrested for public order offences.

Barking and Dagenham councillor Liam Smith said the march was unaffected by the protest.

He said: "I'm glad the actions of a vocal minority failed to spoil what was a proud day in the borough's history and one we will remember for all the right reasons in years to come.

"The Royal Anglians are our local regiment. We are proud of them and the difficult and dangerous job they do, and as today's turnout for the parade showed, so are the people of Barking and Dagenham."











People attacking the Muslim Protesters in Anger...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKOmTRbo0Rw

Source
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...s-2001191.html

Alternative Article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml

[diablos]

A disgrace the same happened up in Glasgow with some ira loving wanks, they found out it was a bad idea and had to get police protection.

[sanj]

I'm sorry but what did these protester's expect to happen to them?They went there with one motive and that was to stir up trouble,don't know what else to say.Lucky the cop's were there to protect them.

[strife]

i had to point this out im afraid , although may not be apropriate , just shows you how ridiculous they are

[snoz]

Im half iranian myself although not muslim, I really feel angry towards these people and think they should be deported on the spot.

[{{909}}]

i had to point this out im afraid , although may not be apropriate , just shows you how ridiculous they are

he probably can't read English.

[CallmeGoose]

im no racist but i think this is an absolute disgrace that this country even allows these kind of protests. Im all for free speech, but there only so far you can take it until it gets nasty.

In my opinion, people who want to live in this country should come here, respect our way of life and live by it, even change and adapt to integrate into it. Learn the language, get a job etc.

These soldiers are doing an amazing thing, protecting the Afghans and Iraqis from terror, they would soon be calling for US and British soldiers back if we were all to pull out and let them fight amongst themselves... which in my opinion we should. Too many Brit soldiers have died trying to free these countries....

Kill one martyr, another replaces him. Its a never ending story, one which we are gonna pay the ultimate price for in the long run

[Over Carl]

im no racist but i think this is an absolute disgrace that this country even allows these kind of protests. Im all for free speech, but there only so far you can take it until it gets nasty.

In my opinion, people who want to live in this country should come here, respect our way of life and live by it, even change and adapt to integrate into it. Learn the language, get a job etc.

These soldiers are doing an amazing thing, protecting the Afghans and Iraqis from terror, they would soon be calling for US and British soldiers back if we were all to pull out and let them fight amongst themselves... which in my opinion we should. Too many Brit soldiers have died trying to free these countries....

Kill one martyr, another replaces him. Its a never ending story, one which we are gonna pay the ultimate price for in the long run

The words of yet another sheep taking his orders from the government. Look at what we've done - we've gone over there and taken the piss to help out America. All we have done is increase the risk of attack on us, therefore what the army has done there is not only totally immoral but an epic fail as well. Seeing as these people have taken the piss out of another country and made all of us more likely to be the target of a terrorist attack, a parade is probably one of the most inappropriate thing possible - to an Afghani, this could be viewed as dancing on the graves of those killed in this unjust war. With that view, I reckon any soldiers parading from returning from illegal wars should be the ones charged with public order offenses.

If we as a people are behind the illegal war on Afghanistan, and it wasn't just the actions of the miltary under order from above, then would anyone care to tell me why the Afghanistani people would not be justified to attack civilians in the uk - being the people who elected a government who chooose to attack, who funded the war, and then backed our actions?

But to you lot "our boys" can do no wrong, the fact they are following orders totally absolves them of any moral obligation and you'll believe they are heroes for what they have done out there so I don't expect you to actually understand what I've written.

Btw, I'm not a Muslim, and I have no allegience to Islam or any Muslim nation, it's just that I am capable of seeing obvious right and wrong, and my sense of morals has not been interfered with by our government unlike most of you.

[Mystical_2K]

im sorry but whether or not you believe that the current war is just or not (far too big of a top to get into here) i still cannot understand why protests such as this are tolerated, i do not believe that our soldiers can do no wrong but they are risking their lives day after day (alot are also losing their lives) to protect us and our way of life - to be treated this way when they are returning home from all the madness they must see and endure, it should not be tolerated and im embarassed that our country allows this to happen - theirs just seems very little national pride left and everyone has let political correctness overtake what should be important to us

[flik]

Our Soldiers are just following orders just like they would do if this country was invaded and all UK people were under threat including this set of tossers.
If they want to demonstrate their greivances then they should do it outside No 10 and not in front of our brave lads.

[CallmeGoose]

I reckon any soldiers parading from returning from illegal wars should be the ones charged with public order offenses.

To be honest this quote sickens me. Imagine for a moment, if YOU in some other life had joined the amred forces. You dont have a choice where you go, yet you do, you go and do the job you are told to do. Even if you as a soldier thought the war was "immoral" then in the forces tough, your going anyway. These guys are out there doing a job, a bloody hard one at that, risking there life day in and day out. Sure there may be other reasons why we invaded these countries, but one of the outcomes of this invasion is protecting the Iraqi/Afgani people from insurgents. At the end of your tour of duty, imagine 6 months away from your family, children, loved ones, being shot at (im in the merchant navy, and 8 weeks away is bad enough and the conditions are better) so i cant imagine what these guys go through - would you want to come home to a country where these radicals are allowed to mock you in plain sight. Frankly I wouldnt hesitate in arresting every one of them, and either locking them up or deporting them. These people deserve to come home to a home..

And yes, i do think they are heroes. I served on a merchant ministry of defence ship taking tanks, helicopters and ammo out to the gulf. We had a protection force onboard, soldiers who had served in these warzones. The stories you hear from them give you no other impression that they are anything but heroes. The vast majority of the civilian population in Afghan and Iraq are happy to see the US/UK troops, it is the minority (insurgents) and (these morons above in the pictures) who are against us.

[GTI]

There are very strong parallels between these protesters and the hippies who heckled returning Vietnam vets. At the time the protesters were called scum, traitors etc.. but history showed that Vietnam, just like Afghanistan and Iraq were all bullshit, made up wars and people were right to protest. Anyway, these men and women are made of pretty hardy stuff, a shit foreign policy, lack of equipment etc.. hurts them more than a few hecklers and placards.

[GTI]

Frankly I wouldnt hesitate in arresting every one of them, and either locking them up or deporting them. These people deserve to come home to a home..

You scare me more than the terrorists, to actually lock up dissenters or deport them (where exactly??) strikes me as the beginning of the end. You may want to live in a Police State where we all glorify the military and our Government but I most certainly do not.

[CallmeGoose]

im not saying we should live in a police state, im just saying that these people deserve to return home and live in piece after doing a job which is unbelievably difficult, without having the thought in the back of your head that you may be linched from someone protester who is "against the war".

if these people are protesters... then why not get a constructive point across. comparing our soldiers to "hitlers henchmen", only goes to show these people dont think rationally. hitlers and his men killed millions in the belief of a supreme race, we are just simply taking the war to these terrorists doorstep, civilains are an unfortunate result of any war.

[kroner]

The words of yet another sheep taking his orders from the government. Look at what we've done - we've gone over there and taken the piss to help out America. All we have done is increase the risk of attack on us, therefore what the army has done there is not only totally immoral but an epic fail as well. Seeing as these people have taken the piss out of another country and made all of us more likely to be the target of a terrorist attack, a parade is probably one of the most inappropriate thing possible - to an Afghani, this could be viewed as dancing on the graves of those killed in this unjust war. With that view, I reckon any soldiers parading from returning from illegal wars should be the ones charged with public order offenses.

If we as a people are behind the illegal war on Afghanistan, and it wasn't just the actions of the miltary under order from above, then would anyone care to tell me why the Afghanistani people would not be justified to attack civilians in the uk - being the people who elected a government who chooose to attack, who funded the war, and then backed our actions?

But to you lot "our boys" can do no wrong, the fact they are following orders totally absolves them of any moral obligation and you'll believe they are heroes for what they have done out there so I don't expect you to actually understand what I've written.

Btw, I'm not a Muslim, and I have no allegience to Islam or any Muslim nation, it's just that I am capable of seeing obvious right and wrong, and my sense of morals has not been interfered with by our government unlike most of you.

Yep, cause excuting seven year olds for spying is the way forward... quick to protest about one thing, not so quick to against the other...

[GTI]

if these people are protesters... then why not get a constructive point across. comparing our soldiers to "hitlers henchmen", only goes to show these people dont think rationally

Sadly we're all guilty of historical ignorance as most of these Nazi comparisons are completely misguided. However the point they're trying to make is that under International law, and indeed the Nuremburg trials the excuse "I was just following orders" was not an acceptable line of defence.

And actually, under the Nazis, refusing to follow orders frequently led to a bullet to the back of the head whereas over here its a court martial and/or dishonourable discharge at most. And for the record there have been quite a few consiensious objectors who've refused to go to war without International (UN) backing. The Sun, Express Mail etc.. would have you believe they're cowards, but in my mind they're far closer to what a soldier is i.e. Someone who fights to defend Gt Britain and her interests and not simply mercenaries to be used for securing oil deals or supporting US foreign policy.

[CallmeGoose]

i understand what you are saying, and i agree that there are some people within the UK armed forces to do tend to cross the line when it comes to treatment of hostages etc. But remember, that in the eyes of the soldiers who do love there job and fight for whats right, they are defending the UK from a very real threat. As I mentioned previously, there are other reasons why we invaded, the most obvious being oil, but the others being - taking out terroists training camps, or at the very least subduing (sp?) the enemy so that they cant bring the fight to our shores on a larger scale. I do agree with you however that we shouldnt gone to war on the basis of supporting our US allies, the US have more than enough troops to do this themselves.

[blaggard]

My gut reaction is that they are cunts for doing this however, we live in a Democracy (of sorts)
Ignore them, don't give them what they want which is evidence of your outrage.

[burner1]

Wrong time and place to protest imo...but such is our right.

[casio]

I cant help but think that as much as we find it abhorrent they have the right to protest, I know its not a popular point of view but without people in the armed forces putting their life on the line to fight on our and their behalf they wouldnt have the right to protest in the first place.

In all likelyhood without the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women in the armed forces we would all be speaking german and most likely anyone without blonde hair and blue eyes would have been shipped off to concentration camps or worse.

Saying that though I would remove the protection of the police if they have the courage of their convictions let them stand there unguarded, anyone can mouth off if they know that nothing is going to happen to them, just look at fred phelps and his inbred family i doubt that they would act the way they do if the families of the dead they protest were to give them a kicking at each and every funeral