A de facto “blasphemy law” that is threatening free speech must be axed, MPs will be told. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick is backing new laws to make it clear that blasphemy is not a crime, following claims that police and courts have effectively banned criticism of religion.
Conservative MP Nick Timothy, a former adviser to Theresa May when she served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister, will present legislation to Parliament today to “restore our freedom of speech – and our right to criticise any and all religions, including Islam”. Blasphemy has not officially been an offence in the UK since 2008 but Mr Timothy says authorities are using the Public Order Act, which outlaws stirring up religious hatred, to reinstate the offence.
He said: “The Public Order Act is increasingly being used as a blasphemy law to protect Islam from criticism. The Act was never intended to do this. Parliament never voted for this, and the British people do not want it.
“To use the Public Order Act in this way is especially perverse, since it makes a protestor accountable for the actions of those who respond with violence to criticism of their faith. This is wrong, and it destroys our freedom of speech.
“We should be honest that the law is only being used in this way because the authorities have become afraid of the violent reaction of mobs of people who want to impose their values on the rest of us. My Bill will put a stop to this.”
Those sponsoring his proposed Freedom of Expression (Religion or Belief System) Bill include Mr Jenrick, Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden and former Conservative chief whip Sir Gavin Williamson.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch warned last week that “de facto blasphemy laws will set this country on the road to ruin”.
Earlier this month Hamit Coskun, 50, was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence at Westminster Magistrates Court after holding up a burning copy of the Koran in Knightsbridge, London, and shouting “f*** Islam”.
He was originally charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” against “the religious institution of Islam” before the Crown Prosecution Service changed the charge.
This is one of a number of incidents that have worried free speech campaigners. In February Martin Frost, 47, was arrested after tearing pages from the Islamic holy book and setting them alight in Manchester. He admitted a religiously aggravated public order offence.
A report by Lord Walney, a former Labour Minister, urged the Government to issue statutory guidance “upholding teachers’ freedom of expression” after a teacher in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, was driven into hiding following an outctry after he showed a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson.
And former Government adviser Dame Sara Khan published a report warning of a “wide-spread phenomenon of extreme forms of harassment leading individuals into silence, self-censoring, or abandoning their democratic rights”.