Two arrested in raids over sectarian 'hate comments'

There are two football teams in Glasgow, Scotland, that are traditional rivals. One ("Celtic") is basically Catholic. The other ("Rangers") is Protestant. Together they are referred to as "The Old Firm" and Glasgow divides on religious lines over which team you support.

And Protestant/Catholic hatred of one another in Glasgow is very similar to attitudes in Northern Ireland. In both cases the animosity goes back hundreds of years into history. So religious rivalry is added to sporting rivalry.

The hatred seems to have given a focus recently by the fact that one of the players for Rangers is black and that the manager of Celtic is from Northern Ireland.

One result is that the manager of Celtic and a couple of other supporters were recently sent parcel bombs, apparently by a male/female couple. The bombs did not explode but they have been used as an excuse to ban expressions of animosity towards the opposing team. That traditional animosity went on for years without any harm coming to the teams concerned seems to have been overlooked. Just one act has been used to criminalize the speech of everybody else.

"Two men have been arrested in raids targeting "sectarian and hate-filled" web comments about Celtic manager Neil Lennon and Rangers striker El Hadji-Diouf.

A 23-year-old and a 27-year-old are in police custody after the raids in the early hours of the morning.

The arrests were made in Paisley and Dalmarnock in the east end of Glasgow. Both men have been charged with sectarian breach of the peace.

Lennon has endured sectarian threats against him throughout his career as a player and manager at Celtic and was the target of a parcel bomb campaign, which also saw devices sent to QC Paul McBride and MSP Trish Godman.

A number of youth players for various Scottish clubs have also been disciplined for comments they made online.

Source