Quote:
Originally Posted by Shearwater
I don't see why a Dutch flag is supposed to be a sign of protest against building a mosque.
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Indeed. The above is quoted from page one of this thread, and I find it strange that I didn't find similar arguments repeated in the subsequent pages.
It would make just as much sense to wave a Dutch flag as a sign of protest FOR mosques. Unless, of course, one thinks there's something fundamentally un-Islamic about the Dutch flag and what it stands for, in which case waving it can only be interpreted as being opposed to religious freedom. Which is why people associate nationalist symbols in this context with right wing extremists.
Now, as for what happened back then, it is disingenuous to say that he was arrested for waving a flag. He was arrested for refusing to follow police instructions. If the extent of those police instructions was simply to lower his flag, then it was a stupid order on behalf of the police. But things are rarely that simple, and I find it hard to believe that him simply holding a flag was what caught their attention. Was he the
only one with a flag? Surely he must have done something that other flag-carriers - who were left alone - weren't doing. If he was waving the flag in the policemen's faces, for example, then that would be disrespectful and a very bad idea.