Editorial Bear

It's not a protected right, like it is in America (the First Amendment, in fact.) And while we like to think we're all fairly enlightened, there are still some 'free opinions' none of us want to deal with.

Like the beliefs of historian David Irving, who used to run lectures in which he denied the Holocaust took place. He was arrested for peddling this rubbish and wound up in jail.

Now as offensive as the idea of holocaust denial is - should you really be locked up for your beliefs?

Well, that question just got a little more complicated, after an article in the Daily Mail revealed that the government has discovered more and more British schools dropping Holocaust History from their curriculum - due to concerns that they might 'offend' Muslim students.

Muslims, of course, refute the holocaust. In fact, Iran recently hosted a conference based around the idea that the slaughter of six millions Jewish people never took place. It was frighteningly well attended too, with Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke turning up to pitch his wildly fictitious take on established world history.

So in order to pander to the growing number of Muslim students attending British schools, the holocaust - probably the most significant and frightening historical event of the 20th Century - has been dropped. Humanity's darkest moment has been wiped from history's slate - and the important lessons we needed to learn from it are being ignored.

I find it astonishing. I find it wildly offensive. I find it so terrifying that it's almost laughable. But most of all, I find it highly ironic. If you are a white man, you can be jailed for denying that the holocaust took place. If you are a Muslim, holocaust denial appears to be a universally accepted and tolerated part of your cultural beliefs.

Double standards are one of my biggest problems with the way the British are tackling Muslim integration. It seems again and again that there's one rule for Muslims and another for everybody else. This is the most horrific example of that duality yet.

I'd like a one way ticket out of this country, please.