Government ‘Islamophobia’ advisor wants Islamic blasphemy law

Aug 7, 2019 by

by Tim Dieppe, Christian Concern.

Last month, the government appointed Imam Qari Asim to lead a process for establishing a definition of Islamophobia. The government had previously announced that, while it would not be accepting the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims proposed definition of Islamophobia, it would instead appoint two advisers to propose an alternative definition. The government says that the appointment of a second adviser will follow in due course…

…Asim gave a talk at a workshop organised by The Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies last year on ‘Law of the Land and Islam.’ I was present at the event, and the PowerPoint slides and an audio recording of his talk are available online.

In his talk, Asim argued the case for Muslims to obey the law of the land most of the time. But he also made clear how he would like the law to accommodate Islamic ideas. For example, he would like to see polygamy legalised, and inheritance to favour male heirs in line with sharia principles. He also supports Islamic finance with its radical view that interest should be banned. See my criticism of Islamic finance here.

Asim then went on to discuss areas of current law that “really challenge Muslims.” Here, he highlighted same-sex marriage, blasphemy, and honour of the prophet. In relation to blasphemy and honour of the prophet, Asim claimed that “Muslims cherish freedom of speech,” but then went on to argue:

“As we can have exceptions to the freedom of speech on the basis of some words or actions being offensive or distasteful, then if this is something that is distasteful to Muslims, or they find it offensive, … then whether we can have that exception or not.”

In other words, Asim would like to ban speech which is distasteful or offensive to Muslims, particularly any criticism of Muhammad.

Read here

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