The blasphemy law is not a blasphemy law

They’re trying to square the circle.

A new tsar is to be created to tackle growing hatred towards Muslims. The ‘special representative on anti-Muslim hostility’ will be appointed to ‘strengthen understanding, reporting and response’, the Government said.

But ministers insisted the new definition would also guarantee ‘the fundamental right to freedom of speech’ amid fears it would create a blasphemy law by the back door.

The Government ditched a plan to give a definition for the word ‘Islamophobia’ amid free speech concerns and decided to adopt a definition of ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ instead

In other words they tried to hide the fact that they are working to make it illegal to criticize Islam. It won’t fly. You can’t specify a particular religion as under government protection from debate without making it taboo to criticize that religion.

Islam is not like race or sex or place of birth or social status aka class. Islam is a religion, a bunch of rules and taboos in a book written 1400 years ago. The book is intensely hostile to women. How is The Government going to square protecting that hatred of women with its duty to protect the rights and freedoms of women?

Comments

3 responses to “The blasphemy law is not a blasphemy law”

  1. Mostly Cloudy Avatar
    Mostly Cloudy

    The definition of “‘anti-Muslim hostility” that so excited the Daily Fail a month ago was discussed by other UK groups at the time. One of them was Humanists UK :

    The Humanists UK chief executive Andrew Copson said: “Hostility against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims is on the rise in the UK and we all have a duty to stand up against it. We are pleased to see that the new definition of anti-Muslim hostility, along with its supporting guidance, does this while explicitly protecting speech that is critical of religious ideas, in line with international human rights standards.”

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/islamophobia-muslim-islam-politics-uk-b1274269.html

    I agree with Copson on this issue. I don’t think this new definition is an attempt to smuggle a “blasphemy law” that prohibits criticism of a particular religion into the UK’s statute book.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *