Anjem Choudary of Islam4UK is emerging as the greatest Situationist of the 21st century. To get that sort of massive reaction from all the major political parties, the press, racists and anti-racists for simply saying “I’ve got this idea but I’ve not actually done anything about it yet” is evidence of an impressive talent.
Mulling over the controversy I think I might have come up with a conflict resolution solution that will let Anjem get his parade and mollify the inhabitants of Wooton Basset and everyone else he has cheesed off. Anjem wants to march a bunch of people through a town with which he has no connection delivering a political / religious message that the locals find deeply offensive. Is there a parallel for this in any territory controlled by the BritishState? Yes, the north of Ireland / Norn Iron according to your taste..
The old fashioned thinking was that you’d get the police and army to blockade the residents in their homes, erect giant screens to hide the marchers from view and beat the crap out of anyone who objected to being told that they were hell bound lackeys of the Antichrist. That probably wouldn’t work in Wooton Bassett because the squaddies might not want to defend Anjem’s mates from angry protestors and might be inclined to join them.
New conflict resolution based thinking is required. If Anjem rebrands the event as Islamfest he might be onto a winner. He’s got big advantages over Orangefest. For starters there won’t be the dreadful music. Better still the swarms of drunken thugs who ruin everyone’s fun during the Norn Irish summer aren’t likely to attend Anjem’s shindig. In fact if you subtract the awful music and drunkenness from Orangefest you’re not left with that much but with Islamfest Anjem could run interactive workshops on the Muslim contribution to science, architecture, philosophy alongside opportunities to put over his core messages about Afghanistan and how you’re going to hell if you don’t agree with him. At least that similarity with Orangefest remains.
In Norn Iron the British government and local councils are happy to spend millions of pounds making sure that Orangefest runs smoothly. There are lots of grants available and a few pretty cushy jobs in it as well. Anjem needs to start thinking more laterally and get himself a seat on the parity of esteem gravy train.
Liam redux 
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