Brace yourselves for more Quran-burning trials in Britain

You might well have felt slightly repelled if last February you had passed someone ineptly trying to set fire to a copy of the Quran on the streets of London, while simultaneously using some remarkably fruity language about Islamic doctrine and its effect on believers. The man was Turkish dissident Hamit Coşkun: much to the disgust of a passing Muslim, he was burning the book outside the Turkish consulate as a demonstration against the excessive Islamification of Turkey under Recep Erdoğan.

But whatever your distaste, you should be very worried about the fact that this man has now been branded a criminal – indeed, a hate criminal. Yesterday a district judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court had no compunction at convicting him of a religiously aggravated public order offence of engaging in disorderly conduct likely to cause distress. The judgment (available here)