Spanish Protest

WARNING: Not what you think

Spaniards protest government anti-terrorism policy

Madrid - Hundreds of thousands of people rallied Saturday on the streets of Madrid against the anti-terrorism policies of the Spanish government.

The protests were organized by the opposition Popular Party (PP) and directed against the easing of conditions for a prisoner of the Basque underground militant group ETA.

Participants on Saturday carried banners declaring Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero a 'traitor' and called for his resignation.

Spanish police estimated the rally at 350,000, while the organizers claimed 2.5 million participants.

Zapatero recently ordered that convicted ETA terrorist Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, who embarked on a hunger strike in prison, could serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest. Some critics believe Zapatero gave in to blackmail.

Juana Chaos, convicted in 1987 of 25 counts of murder, spent nearly four months on hunger strike.

It's funny, I hadn't heard about this from AP or Reuters. This is no surprise to me, as I noted last month that Spain (and India) remain very fearful of Terrorism, rating it among their greatest fears, and with good reason (Filipino Muslims recently protested, and advocated the beheading of a Christian priest). Worse, there is no protest among Muslims when they kill their own for sectarian reasons.

Am I worried? You bet I am, especially when Muslim activists here in the United States are advocating the imposition of Shari'a law.

I don't ever want to be stoned to death if accused of adultery, nor would I ever desire to part with my hands should the courts find me guilty of robbery. And I especially have no desire to murder a family-member who decides to wed outside the faith.

How about you?