Officially, blasphemy was abolished by New Labour in the 2008 Criminal Justice Act. But today, with the conviction of Hamit Coskun, blasphemy laws now exist in England.
This law has been created by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and District Judge John McGarva. Between them they have prosecuted and found a man guilty of a ‘religiously aggravated public order offence’ because he burned a Quran outside the Turkish consulate. The CPS mounted a prosecution conflating the religious institution of Islam, with Muslims as people, and a British judge has accepted this. Islamic blasphemy codes are now being enforced by arms of the British state, via what the National Secular Society describes as ‘a troubling repurposing of public order laws as a proxy for blasphemy laws’.
Hamit Coskun burned a Quran outside the Turkish consulate in February, before being attacked by a man named Moussa Kadri who has since pleaded guilty to the assault. Mr Coskun was initially charged under the Crime and Disorder Act with ‘intent to cause against the religious institution of Islam harassment, alarm or distress’. This means that the Crown Prosecution Service were treating Islam itself as a person, and a victim of Hamit’s Quran burning. Under English law this is nonsensical, as only people can be harmed in this fashion, so this charge, if it had been successful, would have established a special, protected status for Islam. Weeks ago I made a Freedom of Information request of the CPS, asking in how many instances of ‘the religious institution of Islam’ appeared in recent indictments. Just this morning they responded, saying that it would take too long for them to review all the charges they had made, and that they would not comply with the FOI request.
The new charges under which Hamit has been convicted are scarcely better. The CPS claimed, and Judge McGarva accepted, that Hamit committed a crime because his actions caused distress, harassment and alarm (presumably to the man who attacked him), and that this was motivated by his hostility towards Muslims.
This is an insult to religious freedom and free speech. As Toby Young, Tory Peer and Director of the Free Speech Union said to me, ‘No one should be prosecuted for burning a copy of the Quran, any more than they should be for burning a copy of the Bible. We have repealed our blasphemy laws and should not attempt to bring them back via the courts’.
The National Secular Society agrees, saying that ‘the outcome of this case is a significant blow to freedom of expression and signals a concerning capitulation to Islamic blasphemy codes.’ As Toby Young says, ‘some religious people are going to be offended when their blasphemy codes are breached, but being offended from time to time is the price we pay for living in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society. Social cohesion requires that we tolerate the different religions practised in our midst; it doesn’t mean we have to respect their blasphemy codes’.
Despite the generous and committed support of the National Secular Society and the Free Speech Union, Hamit Coskun has been found guilty. This must not stand. Laws should not be created by the CPS and the judiciary defying the explicit will of parliament. It was the work of centuries to build a society in which men and women could speak freely, and not live in fear of criminal punishment if they offended other people’s religious beliefs. We must guard that society with fierce purpose and utterly oppose those who would threaten it.
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