by Daniel Jupp, TCW
ON February 13 Hamit Coskun, a 50-year-old atheist residing in Britain, decided to protest against the Erdogan government of Turkey. To make his point regarding the nature of the Islamic regime in Turkey, Coskun burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish consulate in Knightsbridge. In reactions reflective of both the ‘sensitivity’ of many Muslims and the nature of modern Britain, Coskun was immediately physically assaulted in response to his act of protest. Two passers-by attacked Coskun. The first, Moussa Kadri, shouting ‘f**cking idiot! Burn the Koran? That’s my religion!’ pulled out a large bread knife and twice attempted to stab Coskun. A second man is reported to have spat and kicked at Coskun at the same time.
While these assaults were unsuccessful, it is quite clear where the criminality lay. Coskun engaged in a form of protest that offended these men, who then responded with immediate violence. He could easily have been seriously harmed or killed. For most people, hopefully, offending someone is not a crime. Nor is it something any sensible person would think warrants knife assaults and potential murder.
In Britain, though, offending Islam is now a crime, just as it would be in a more honestly declared Islamic theocracy.
That Britain homes people who think they have a right to threaten the lives of someone who insults their religion is bad enough. It’s a problem that has been highlighted on multiple occasions when polling British Muslim attitudes. A disturbingly high number of Muslims do indeed think they are entitled to attack people who offend their religion. The standard Establishment response, for many years, has been to ignore this, or to take actions against the ‘offensive’ person rather than against those who react to offence with attempts to murder the person who angered them.
The Coskun case, though, takes that Establishment cowardice and pandering to the violent extremes of Islam one step further. Now, thanks to the precedent established in this case, we are in a situation where a person assaulted by Muslims after offending them is himself charged and blamed for the confrontation. This is the British justice system agreeing with Muslims that violence is an inevitable and at least partly justified response to perceived insults to their faith.