YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP – AT 10:34 P.M. ET:  Do you have an image of Scotland Yard?  Brilliant.  Professional.  No-nonsense.  Filled with Sherlock Holmses.  Maybe you'd better think again.  From The Times of London:

SCOTLAND YARD has bowed to Islamic sensitivities and accepted that Muslims are entitled to throw shoes in ritual protest — which could have the unintended consequence of politicians or the police being hit.

News of the concession by the Metropolitan police has come to light amid a series of trials of more than 70 mostly Muslim demonstrators who were charged with violent disorder after last year’s Gaza protests outside the Israeli embassy in London.

Aquib Salim, 21, an IT student at Queen Mary, London University, who was involved in a shoe-throwing incident, is almost certain to avoid a prison sentence as a result.

Chris Holt, Salim’s solicitor, said he was likely to get a suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to a single charge of throwing a stick at police lines.

“The court accepted that the earlier shoe-throwing incident was simply a ritual form of protest and therefore not a criminal act of violence,” Holt said.

COMMENT:  This is idiotic.  Little by little, our Western civilization is surrendering to the "cultural" needs of violent anti-social groups.  We've tried that in American inner-city schools, and it's been an absysmal failure.

This is what Scotland Yard should be saying:  "You're in Britain now.  We have rules here.  We respect your religion, but you must follow the rules that all citizens follow."

There is no Churchill waiting in the British wings.  The British can only save themselves.

April 10, 2010