Freedom

As we would all acknowledge, following one particular political philosophy or another involves a complex set of personal decisions which are of course influenced by upbringing, social status, family, wealth and so on; you could say that for every person there exists a unique set of perspectives on how our society should be run. Often these views overlap official parties and often people switch allegiance as their personal circumstances change over time; sometimes whole regions, cities, neighbourhoods and families follow one party all their lives without really questioning it; out of a sense of tradition, indoctrination or loyalty to a community.

Many people take their political views very seriously indeed; they go to the meetings, they get the newsletters and they trudge around the streets come election time whipping up support for their particular brand of politics and they take time to explain and articulate those views to others outside of their party in an attempt to persuade them of their value. You could even say that for some people their politics defines them; it gives them purpose and a sense of belonging in a world that can often seem chaotic and undefined without such kinship around a set of shared ideals.

For this reason I think there should be laws preventing people from belittling or criticising people's political view-points. We should have a society where people can subscribe to a set of political beliefs and be able to feel secure that those beliefs won't be questioned or insulted by people outside of their particular party, they should feel completely free to support whatever policies and actions they wish and not have answer for those policies or have them made fun of or besmirched by ignorant outsiders who simply don't understand them properly, like party members do.

Nah! of course not, I don't believe this should be true any more than Ed Miliband does, so why the hell would he think it should be true for Islam?