Our free speech is under attack

We must be free to say what we think about Islam – even if that offends Muslims

We all know we are not free to say what we think about Islam, or aspects of Islamic history, beliefs or practices. From the case of the Batley teacher – still in hiding with his family – to the intimidation and silencing of mainstream media outlets, our freedom of speech is under pressure thanks to the threat of physical violence, the risk of professional ostracisation, self-censorship, the surrender of public sector organisations to mobs and organised campaign groups, and, increasingly, the manipulation of our laws to make offending Muslims illegal.

Blasphemy prosecutions

Already, sections 4 and 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 are being used to police what we can and cannot say about Islam. This was never the intention of the Act, as is clear from the transcripts of the Parliamentary debates at the time, and the fact that the controversies about blasphemy and Islam in this country began two years after its introduction, with the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988.

Despite this, the police, prosecutors and courts are now using the Public Order Act to criminalise speech and actions that offend Muslims. Sections 4 and 5 of the Act, make it an offence to cause “harassment, alarm or distress” by using “threatening, abusive or insulting words of behaviour.”

One might say it is legitimate to prosecute somebody for saying something that might cause wider disorder. Perhaps in some circumstances that may be so, but what has happened in our criminal justice system in the last year goes much further. First, the Crown Prosecution Service gave the game away by charging one man who desecrated the Quran with causing “distress” to the “religious institution of Islam” – which is almost the dictionary definition of blasphemy. Second, twisting the law to make a protestor responsible for the violent reaction of those who will not tolerate the opinions of others is wrong. In any other context it would be called “victim blaming”, and this novel legal interpretation destroys our freedom of speech.

I am campaigning to change the law to make clear that nothing in the Public Order Act – nor in other pieces of legislation – should prohibit or restrict any discussion and criticism or even ridicule and abuse of religious ideas. But there is another – perhaps even more damaging – threat to our freedom of expression, and that is the Government’s plan to define “Islamophobia”.

“Islamophobia”

The term “Islamophobia” has been thrown around – and used to attack and silence legitimate political opinion – for years. The Centre for Media Monitoring, which sounds benign but is an offshoot of the Muslim Council of Britain and used to intimidate the free press, has for example claimed reports that the Manchester Arena attacker yelled “Islamic slogans” were “Islamophobic. It claimed the same about reports that referred to “Jihadi John” – who notoriously executed hostages for ISIS – as a “terrorist”, on the grounds that he had never been convicted.