Gymnast Louis Smith is in trouble at the moment for appearing to "mock" Islam in a recently leaked video showing a him and a friend making fools of themselves in public. If you watch the video clip (it's only a few seconds long) you can see that this is obviously two young lads with too much booze on-board coming across something that looks like a prayer mat in a hotel reception and pretending to pray to Mecca on it until a "grown-up" member of the hotel staff comes out and tells them off. It's the kind of thing I can easily imagine doing at that age (and worse). Is it wrong, not really. Is it antisocial behaviour, yep. Does it mock a religion, possibly, but so what. Personally I don't see any issue with someone mocking a particular religion, in the same way that I don't have a problem with someone mocking a political party, a particular hobby or a particular sport, these are all inert things that, whilst they certainly have followers and apologists, don't actually have feelings. Would the Rugby Football Union discipline a male player for dressing up in a tutu and pretending to be a gymnast, or going to a fancy dress party as a salacious nun? I don't see the difference, do we have freedom of speech or not? and what's so special about Islam? (rhetorical question, we all know what's special...)
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