Robert Burns would be considered a ‘terrorist’ if alive today, according to film maker
Alistair Fraser argues that the UK terror laws may have rendered Robert Burns a terrorist. Picture: Ian Rutherford
SCOTLAND’S national poet Robert Burns would face terrorism charges over his poetry if he was writing now under modern laws, according to a Burns expert.
Independent film maker Alistair Fraser argues in Scotland on Sunday that under the UK’s Terrorism Act 2000, lines from Scots Wha Hae such as “Liberty’s in every blow / Let us do – or die” are not only an incitement to violence, but connect Burns with the French revolutionary struggle; “Let us do – or die” being the revolutionaries’ battle cry.
Comparing Burns to Samina Malik, the first woman convicted under the Terrorism Act, for owning poems inciting Jihad, Fraser said: “The parallels are obvious… connections with foreign terrorist groups and a call to insurrection.”
Email to a friend
Print this page- Rangers takeover: Duff & Phelps threaten legal action against BBC
- Family mourn death of Glasgow ‘fight’ schoolboy
- Today’s youth not fit to be employed, says car firm Arnold Clark
- Rangers administration: Fans fear Duff & Phelps claims could scare off Green
- Rangers takeover: triple penalty punishment enough, says Johnston
- Alistair Darling leads ‘No to independence’ fight over tea and biscuits
- Scottish independence: SNP flip-flops over Nato
- Scottish Independence: SNP ‘won’t be Yes campaign’s only voice’
- Today’s youth not fit to be employed, says car firm Arnold Clark
- Scottish independence: ‘People here are best qualified to run Scotland’
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Edinburgh
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
