Do Unto Others

I’m hardly a fan of Islamic Extremists - I think they bring shame upon an ancient, and, in many respects, otherwise noble, religion – but having over the past week watched the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the Shadow Home Secretary jump up and down over the release of Abu Qatada I can’t help but think that we are running the risk of taking things too far.

Yes, I know, he is considered Al-Qaeda’s spiritual leader in Europe and is therefore bad news. But the only crime he may have committed under British law is incitement to racial hatred. Even the Law Lords ruled that holding him without charge simply because he is a “suspected” terrorist was unlawful. Yet we treat him as if he has been found guilty of blowing up Tower Bridge. Now rather than simply put him under surveillance we put him under some sort of draconian house arrest, monitoring his every contact and movement. Also, for once, I agree with the

European Court

on Human Rights. To send Abu Qatada back to Jordan at the moment would be a direct contravention of his right to freedom from torture as outlined in Article 5 of the UN Convention on Human Rights

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Now I know what you’re thinking. Aren’t there times when we should just ignore those rules because the Daily Mail said we should? ‘No’ is the answer. There is never a time when that is appropriate. Abu Qatada may be a nasty, bad, evil, naughty, man who wishes to crush the infidel scum, but he is also a human being and, as such, he is entitled to the same rights as everyone else. He has yet to be convicted of any crime under British law and thus is to be considered innocent until proven guilty. The rights and privileges that come with being a human being must be upheld at all costs. We can’t simply change the rules where a specific person is involved because we don’t like them or the stuff that they say. If we could then Nick Griffin would already be languishing in a jail cell somewhere.

I love my country because of our attitudes towards tolerance, fair play and the belief that everyone deserves the same rights and opportunities in life (mostly). The code of our society may very well be “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” (something the Tories would do very well to remember). If Jordan can assure us that Abu Qatada will receive a fair trial and won’t be tortured then I will put him on the plane myself. But until then we cannot and should not send him back. Firstly because if the situations were reversed I’d hope he’d do the same for us. Even though secretly I know he wouldn’t. And secondly because if we allow our common decency to be stripped away like this, then the extremists have already won.