My flag is a flag not a religious symbol! update

Seems common sense has prevailed, in this case...

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.”

Now today...

Reading Chronicle.

A MAN arrested after hanging a flag of St George outside a partially built mosque has had the case against him thrown out of court.

District judge Andrew Vickers dismissed the charge of religiously aggravated harassment against Ronald Peterson, from Tilehurst, at Reading Crown Court today (Thursday).

Mr Peterson, 37, a member of the English Defence League (EDL), was arrested on May 30 last year when a witness called the police after seeing him hang the flag on a fence outside the Oxford Road mosque in West Reading and hearing him chant “EDL” and “England”.

Judge Vickers said he did not believe Mr Peterson’s words were threatening, abusive or insulting or that he was motivated by religious hatred, and added: “Was the display of the St George’s flag a challenge to the Islamic faith? I do not find that beyond reasonable doubt.”

Speaking afterwards, Mr Peterson said: “I’m happy but I’m not happy because at the end of the day I shouldn’t have been in court in the first place.”

Well done that judge!

Good news, but it should not have even reached the court, flying the flag of your own country in your own country should never be classed as a crime!
Again it seems as if the law enforcement agencies in this country will fall over backwards to pander to those who cry of racist particularly if it comes from a member of the so called "religion of peace"
And they wonder why groups like the EDL are growing at an incredible rate.