Guy Fawkes' 400th Anniversary

There was an interesting article in The Guardian the other day – pointing out the similarities between Guy Fawkes and his 17th Century religious terrorists and the present day London bombers. A few details might have been stretched or omited to make a good story but the basic premise was that the Catholics were the Muslims of 1605.

So for example:
• Guy Fawkes (a Catholic) represented an extreme and minority fringe of the Catholic Church
• King James (a Church of England man) was proud of his tolerance of Catholicism (he was a multi-culturalist)
• Guy Fawkes like the present day bombers was British born, but went overseas for training.
• After the failed attack, King James authorized a bit of a crack down on the poor old Catholics and they were persecuted and shut out for quite a long time. In fact, the Catholics didn’t gain acceptance again until the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. That's 200 years!

There are certainly some interesting comparisons here. Are there lessons to be learned? Surely we do not want to go down the same path towards isolation of the Muslims as we did with the Catholics in 1605.

What is also interesting is that this year is the 400 year anniversary of Guy Fawkes and his failed attack on the British Parliament. We seem to celebrate anniversaries at the drop of a hat these days, yet, this core part of every English child’s upbringing is hardly getting a mention on its 400th birthday. (For those Americans who don't know about this, on November 5th every year, the English celebrate Bonfire night with fireworks, a bonfire and the burning of an effigy of Guy Fawkes on top of the fire.)

I suppose it would be a little odd to make a big deal about this sort of event these days and I suppose, in a way, we do celebrate it every year on November 5th.