A Tangled Web

Halal, Goodbye



A few evenings ago I was watching the first Dirty Harry movie. There is a classic scene when Eastwood (Harry Callahan) is arguing with the Deputy District Attorney, played by Josef Sommer, about his (Harry's) alleged infringement of the rights of chief murder suspect, Scorpio. Sommer looks across the desk at Eastwood and says: 'What I'm saying is that man had rights.' Eastwood glares back, conveying a look of utter contempt and replies: 'Well, I'm all broken up about that man's rights!'



Whilst reading this story in The Times, I felt very much the same way as Eastwood did in the movie. Muslim inmates at Belmarsh prison in Thamesmead are enraged about the serving of spicy pork during one meal. They now refuse to accept the word of the prison governors concerning all the 'necessary proprieties' involved in culinary preparation. Aside from the usual Islamic whingeing about religious and cultural persecution (a talent which even exceeds that of Irish nationalists), we have to remember the calibre of the inmates making these protests. They include Captain Hook Hamza, awaiting extradition to the United States - and a man who regularly incited Muslims to commit terrorist acts on UK soil; and several foreign terrorist suspects.



Personally, if I was the Governor of Belmarsh prison, I would be only too glad to serve these people the food they requested. Of course, any meat - halal or otherwise - would first be garnished with urine from the local latrine, and then sprinkled with hemlock. Unfortunately, I am not entrusted with the well-being of these beturbaned canailles so my wishes won't come true. However, I would suggest that if the incarcerated rabble are unhappy about the food they are served, they should ask the radicalised members of their own community to bring them sustenance instead of having it provided by the British taxpayer. Alternatively, they could simply starve themselves to death (like Bobby Sands, Martin Hurson, Kieran Doherty et al did 23 years ago) and do the rest of us a favour!