The charge of blasphemy – backed by threats of violence – is being used to silence criticism of Islam

Mar 13, 2024 by Jill

by Frank Furedi, Daily Mail:

And our cherished freedoms are in peril.

During the Middle Ages and beyond, thousands of people were put to death in Britain and across Europe for the abominable crime of ‘blasphemy’.

In 1656, the Quaker James Nayler was flogged, pilloried, branded on the forehead and had his tongue pierced by a red-hot poker — followed by an indefinite prison sentence including hard labour — for re-enacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on a donkey for Palm Sunday, by riding a horse into Bristol.

Thankfully, as the centuries passed, Britain gradually shed these theocratic tendencies, emerging as a bastion of enlightenment and liberalism. The last prosecution for blasphemy was as recently as 1977, when campaigner Mary Whitehouse successfully sued a gay magazine for an erotic poem about Jesus. When Britain’s ancient blasphemy laws were formally abolished in 2008, the matter was thought to have been put to bed.

Until now. As a new report makes clear, our country is increasingly facing the wrath of mobs of religious zealots who use violence and intimidation to police language and behaviour — and especially any criticism of Islam.

The vital new report was produced by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, a senior researcher in terrorism and radicalisation at King’s College London.

He warns: ‘[Although] Islamic anti-blasphemy sentiment has been part of the religious activist landscape in the UK for decades … threats of violence have increased in frequency over recent years.’

In chilling terms, he then explains how such violence has been promoted in no small part by ‘the availability of jihadist propaganda online’. In other words, Islamists are being radicalised on the internet and then taking it upon themselves to resurrect the ‘crime’ of blasphemy in Britain.

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