My flag is a flag not a religious symbol!

The Cross of St George is the flag of my country, it has a long history dating all the way back to 275/303 AD. It's known as the symbol that the crusaders wore over their armour, though that isn't as important to the English, well the Christian English at least. It's important to us because it's our flag and St George is our Saint, even though he has little to do (if anything) in our country. The earliest mention of him being by the Venerable Bede way back in 701 AD mentioned as a martyr only. The real significance of the flag comes when it was adopted by England and the City of London in 1190 for their ships entering the Mediterranean to benefit from the protection of the Genoese fleet during the Crusades and the English Monarch paid an annual tribute to the Doge of Genoa for this privilege. In England the Synod of Oxford, 1222 declared St. George's Day a feast day in the kingdom of England. Edward III put his Order of the Garter under the banner of St. George, probably in 1348. The chronicler Froissart observed the English invoking St. George as a battle cry on several occasions during the Hundred Years' War and so the Cross of St George was recognised as the flag of this land, not because of the crusades, but because it prevented our ships being plundered by the Genoese and so became recognised as the symbol of England.
However there are certain British who have a problem with this, despite it being part of the union flag.

Reading Chronicle.

THE English Defence League staged a protest in Reading today (Thursday) in support of a man arrested after hanging a St George’s flag outside a mosque.

Around 20 members of the controversial campaign group came from across the South East to demonstrate outside Reading Magistrates’ Court monitored by a heavy police presence.

Among them was co-founder Tommy Robinson, who told The Chronicle: “Our argument is with militant Islam. What’s far right about protecting women’s rights and gay people’s rights? The problem is the teachers of Islam, it’s got nothing to do with your colour. It all comes back to the Koran.”

Inside the court 37-year-old Tilehurst man Ronald Peterson was on trial for religiously aggravated harassment. The court heard he went to the partially built mosque in Oxford Road, west Reading, on May 30 to protest over the way its planning application was handled by the borough council.

Peterson, with two other men, draped the St George’s flag on a fence, posed for pictures and chanted “E, E, E.D.L” and “England”.

Witness Urfan Azad, 32, told the court he was in the nearby Reading Tea House and went outside after hearing the chanting.

He said he dialled 999 because he was concerned the situation could escalate, and added: “My concern was the flag needed to be taken off the fence because it might be seen by Muslims as a religious symbol. I felt upset about the whole incident. I’m British myself, I was born in Reading. It’s made me feel a bit socially excluded.”

Police arrived on the scene within minutes and, without warning him or giving him a chance to move on, arrested Peterson on the spot. Sgt Lee Barnham said he spoke to Mr Azad, and added: “He was offended by the use of what he considered to be a religious cross against the site of worship.

“It was clear he was upset and felt intimidated. I was satisfied an offence under the public order act had been committed.”

Peterson, who described the mosque as an “eyesore” and “monstrosity”, told the court he was unhappy because it had not been built in the required time but instead had planning permission re-granted and was given council funding.

Peterson denied being a racist but said he had a problem with the ideology of Islam. He added: “Go and see countries that are run by that ideology, it’s oppressive.”

District Judge Andrew Vickers reserved his verdict and the case was adjourned until January 13.

Yes, that's right, a certain type of British hates our flag and feels socially excluded from the rest of us. he also thinks that Muslim's (for he is a Muslim himself) might see it as a religious symbol, which as you can tell from the short history I've mentioned, it isn't. Nor do the police come out of this with any great merit, they could have asked the guy to take the flag down (though why should he, it isn't a crime) instead they locked him up without warning. But this shows that the cops are willing to charge someone for others being upset about their own mistaken perspectives. Azad's insinuating that anyone who flies the flag of England is perpetuating a particular religious angle, this really should have been laughed out of court as otherwise this leaves the judge on a very prickly fence any other outcome would put the cross of St George at risk and alienating a very large percentage of the country who support their football team for one.

Of course you can go vice versa too with this whole religious offence malarkey.

So this:
"Witness Urfan Azad, 32, told the court he was in the nearby Reading Tea House and went outside after hearing the chanting. He said he dialled 999 because he was concerned the situation could escalate, and added: “My concern was the flag needed to be taken off the fence because it might be seen by Muslims as a religious symbol. I felt upset about the whole incident. I’m British myself, I was born in Reading. It’s made me feel a bit socially excluded." 

Can be changed to this:
"Witness John Smith, 32, told the court he was in the nearby Reading Tea House and went outside after hearing the chanting. He said he dialled 999 because he was concerned the situation could escalate, and added: “My concern was the Mosque needed to be taken down because it might be seen by non-Muslims as a religious symbol. I felt upset about the whole incident. I’m British myself, I was born in Reading. It’s made me feel a bit socially excluded."


It strikes me that the police are over compensating for previous neglect and it is time all hate crime procedure was put in perspective in relation to crime as a whole and that flying the flag of your country in your country can never ever be seen as a hate crime. Mr Azad should himself have been arrested for wasting police time.