Will Angela Rayner ban criticism of Islam?

Less than 24 hours after a man in Manchester was convicted of a hate crime for burning the Koran, news has emerged of the UK government’s plans for further restrictions on what can be said about Islam.

As the Telegraph reports, UK deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, in her role as communities secretary, is setting up a council to advise her on drawing up an official government definition of ‘Islamophobia’. Although it is presented in the language of tackling prejudice, discrimination and abuse faced by British Muslims, we can be certain that the government will attempt to ringfence criticism of Islam itself – and perhaps even of Islamic fundamentalism and extremism.

We know this thanks to past attempts to define and combat so-called Islamophobia. Most notable is the definition drawn up by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims in 2019. This definition is so broad that it effectively treats criticism of any aspect of Islam, or indeed behaviour by Muslims, Islamists and Muslim-majority states, as a form of racial discrimination. The report explicitly mentions debates on everything from gender segregation in Islam, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the history of Islamic colonialism, Islamist terrorism, immigration from Muslim-majority countries, modern-day Islamic governments and even the grooming-gangs scandal. The restrictions it would place on speech are staggering.

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Read also: How Afraid Should we be About the Government’s Plan to Come up With a Legal Definition of ‘Islamophobia’? Very Afraid by Sam Bidwell, The Daily Sceptic