Most gyms have a code of etiquette these days which users encounter through strategically-placed signs: don’t hog the cardiovascular equipment, don’t use more towels than you need, wipe down machines after use, put the free weights back in their holders and so forth. They may now need to add antisemitic outbursts to the list of do nots.
Here’s the story of British career diplomat Rowan Laxton:
A high-ranking diplomat at the Foreign Office has been arrested after allegations that he launched a foul-mouthed anti-Semitic tirade.
Middle East expert Rowan Laxton, 47, was watching TV reports of the Israeli attack on Gaza as he used an exercise bike in a gym.
Stunned staff and gym members allegedly heard him shout: ‘F**king Israelis, f**king Jews’. It is alleged he also said Israeli soldiers should be ‘wiped off the face of the earth’.
His rant reportedly continued even after he was approached by other gym users.
After a complaint was made to police, Mr Laxton was arrested for inciting religious hatred through threatening words and behaviour and bailed until late next month.
The maximum penalty for inciting religious hatred is a seven-year prison term or a fine or both.
Mr Laxton, who is still working normally, is head of the South Asia Group at the Foreign Office, on a salary of around £70,000.
He is responsible for all the UK’s diplomacy in that area and for briefing Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is Jewish.
Mr Laxton has worked extensively in the Middle East - he married a Muslim woman in 2000 - and has been deputy ambassador to Afghanistan.
The case could not have come at a worse time for the Foreign Office. Next week, Britain is hosting an international summit on combating anti-Semitism, with politicians from 35 countries.
Mr Laxton had gone to the London Business School’s gym in Regent’s Park after work on January 27.
An onlooker said: ‘I was in the gym around 9pm and I heard this guy shouting something about “f**king Israelis”.
Press TV, the Iranian Holocaust denial outfit which masquerades as a genuine news organization, has a different take:
Britain has detained a Foreign Office diplomat over insulting Israel in protest at the Israeli Army’s recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.
You never know. If Laxton loses his job but manages to evade the slammer, Press TV could give him his own show. He’d be in excellent company. And that’s not even mentioning her.
“He is responsible for all the UK’s diplomacy in that area and for briefing Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is Jewish.”
No wonder British policy on Islamic terrorism is so contradictory.
Miliband can’t even seem to make up his mind who to blame for the Mumbai attacks a few months back. His views on the Gaza war and Hamas were also pretty weak.
Not a word from the BBC on this one…
Is Rowan Laxton a member of the Fascist right or the Fascist left?
“Ed Balls: minister fears rise of fascism amid economic gloom”
“The economic crisis could spark a resurgence in the Far Right, a close ally of Gordon Brown has suggested. ”
“Ed Balls, the Children’s and Schools Secretary, said the downturn was likely to be the most serious for 100 years, and his comments appeared to raise the prospect of a return to the Far Right politics of the 1930s and the rise of Facism.
His warning, in a speech to activists at the weekend, came after a trade union baron warned that far right parties were trying to hijack the campaign for “British jobs for British workers”. ”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4571944/Ed-Balls-minister-fears-rise-of-fascism-amid-economic-gloom.html
Whether or not Laxton is allowed to continue in his diplomatic position in the FO will say a great deal more than whether or not he is prosecuted legally. The legal case seems doubtful; the social/professional case, especially so given his position, would seem absolute.