by Jonathan Ames, The Times
Hamit Coskun has been charged with burning the Islamic text outside the Turkish consulate in February — campaigners argue the charges threaten human rights law
Prosecutors have been accused of resurrecting the offence of blasphemy through “the back door” after charging a man for burning a copy of the Quran.
Hamit Coskun, 50, has denied religiously motivated harassment after setting alight a copy of the Muslim holy text outside the Turkish consulate in Knightsbridge, central London, in February.
He is due to go on trial at Westminster magistrates’ court next month accused of “intent to cause against [the] religious institution of Islam, harassment, alarm or distress”, including shouting profanities about the religion.
However, on Tuesday the head of the National Secular Society wrote to senior prosecutors to call for the charges to be dropped.
Stephen Evans, the chief executive, said that there were “serious concerns about the nature of the charges” against Coskun.
Evans said that the society had received an opinion from a KC that described the charges as “plainly defective”, with a “fatal” flaw being that “the religious institution of Islam” was not a “person” under English law.