Taking offence...

Some Muslim voices have been raised in protest at the exhibition of a couple of paintings at the Saatchi Galley which incorporate the text of the shahada, one of the five pillars of Islam, in Arabic script, juxtaposed with images of nude women in the style of the US flag. The images, according to the complainants, are “blasphemous”. Well, we no longer have a blasphemy law in England; we give no particular protection to religious beliefs… beyond the freedom to worship any god, or no god at all.

Instead of being “offended” (a permanent state, seemingly, for too many Muslims) they should just stay away from the gallery. Instead of resisting this attempt to superimpose sharia on the law of the land, the gallery has capitulated... by covering up the “offending” paintings with sheets. I don't care to be told (by Muslims... or anybody else) what I should or shouldn't be able to see in an art gallery.

Licensed last week: Eric Morecambe's statue in the town from which he took his stage name...