by David Robertson, Christian Today
Blasphemy laws were abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and in Scotland in 2021. But under new proposals from the UK government, they are about to make a not so surprising comeback. In this new Britain you can blaspheme all you want about Jesus and feel free to burn the Bible, but dare to critique Muhammad or burn a Quran as Hamit Coskun did and things could end very differently for you.
When I wrote about Islamophobia seven years ago there was the usual reaction from those who see a conspiracy theory or a ‘right wing’ exaggeration in everything. Sadly, even in the church, this is seen as an effective way to shut down any discussion. But this subject keeps coming up. And as The Telegraph recently reported, this is not a fantasy threat, but a clear and present danger.
Sir John Jenkins, the former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria, has suggested that any criticism of Iran for example could be perceived as hostility towards Islam and invoking hatred against Muslims.
“If you make a point of criticising the way the Islamic Republic seeks to oppress women by mandatory veiling you will be criticised for expressing hostility to a particular facet of being Muslim,” he said.
Let’s take a step back and ask: what is Islamophobia? How did we end up with this word and concept? The term was first coined by the Runnymede Trust in 1997 to describe an ‘unfounded hostility towards Islam’. But what is unfounded? And what is hostility? In 2018, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims defined ‘Islamophobia’ as a ‘type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’. This is such a broad definition that it could be used to silence any criticism of Islam – especially when combined with the British political and police systems’ penchant for hate crimes and hate speech, being effectively determined by how the ‘victims’ perceive it.
As a result, we have now got to a stage where, as Niyak Ghorbani, an Iranian dissident and activist, told The Telegraph: “As an Iranian living in England, I can see that a word that is meant to prevent hatred has become a tool to silence criticism of ideology.
“In practice, Islamophobia has become a word that disarms free societies – protecting Islamists who have not yet reached power.”
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