Brian Ross wrote on May 11
th, 2021 at 1:48pm:
In Ireland, a few years ago:
Pastor McConnell said in his sermon that “new evil had arisen” and there were “cells of Muslims right throughout Britain” similar to IRA cells of the past. He said some people had characterised Islam as “little more than a variation of Christianity and Judaism” but this was wrong.
“Islam’s ideas about God, about humanity, about salvation are vastly different from the teaching of the holy scripture. Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell,” he added.
Pastor McConnell said there was “powerful evidence that more and more of Muslims are putting the Koran’s hatred of Christians and Jews alike into practice”. “Now people say there are good Muslims in Britain - that may be so - but I don’t trust them,” he said.
He said he would do the sermon again, though word it differently. “The only regret I have is the response from the Muslim community - that I was out to hurt them,” he said. “There was no way I was out to hurt them - I wouldn’t hurt a hair on their head. But what I am against is their theology and what they believe in. If there are Muslims out there I want to assure them I love them and, if they need help, I am there to help them, but their theology and their beliefs I am totally against them.”
He added: “I would do it again but I would word it differently because I would be conscious I was hurting innocent Muslims, I would be conscious I was hurting Muslims who have come here to work hard and are doing their best - there’s no way I would hurt those people, but I would do it again - yes.”
Muhammad Al-Hussaini wanted to speak on Pastor McConnell’s behalf but was not permitted by the court on the basis that his comments would not be relevant and that he had already expressed his views in an article in The Irish Times. In that article he wrote that as a Muslim academic and clergman, he was “hardly going to agree” with Pastor McConnell’s remarks. “Nevertheless I believe it is the very freedom of speech of Christians and Muslims to disagree and critique religious ideas that is on trial here - wherein lies the moral imperative to take a stand,” he wrote.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/ni-pastor-acquitted-of-grossly-off...The magistrate dismissed the charges of 'hate speech'. Sensible. There is a very important difference illustrated here, between attack on ideas, beliefs, doctrins on the one hand, and attacks on actual persons. Self-designated victim groups want to confuse the two and want attacks on their ideas and beliefs treated as personal attacks on their person. That is completely wrong.