HATE SPEECH LEGISLATION IN THE UK:
THE RELIGIOUS HATRED BILL

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The Religious Hatred Bill:

A bill to combat religious hate speech was introduced by the ruling Labour party to the British Parliament in 2001. However, it did not become law. ₁ A second bill was introduced in 2004-JUL . The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties expressed opposition to the bill. The British government retracted that bill on 2005-APR-06 in order to prevent other anti-crime bills from being defeated in Parliament. ₂

The Queen's speech to the UK parliament on 2005-MAY-17 included a reference to a third attempt to pass a law restricting religious hate speech. Most Muslim groups had been urging the government to create this type of legislation since the early 1990s. "They feel that such a law is required to protect their communities from Islamophobia, especially from far-right groups." ₃ The British Broadcasting Crporation stated that the the new bill is targeting "members of extremist organizations who stir up hatred against members of minority faiths and to individuals who seek to stir up hatred against those who do not share their faith."

The maximum sentence for anyone found guilty of religious hate speech would be seven years. The bill takes the form of an amendment to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill (SOCP) which currently prohibits the incitement of racial hatred. The amendment would increase the scope of that bill to include hatred based on religion. Although the existing SOCP law covers hatred against mono-ethnic faith groups such as Jews or Sikhs, it does not protect multi-ethnic religious groups such as Christians and Muslims. The proposed amendment is intended to plug this gap. ₄

A Home Office spokeswoman stated in 2004-DEC: "There is a clear difference between criticism of a religion and the act of inciting hatred against members of a religious group. The incitement offences have a high criminal threshold and prosecutions require the consent of the Attorney General. There has not been a widespread sense that the existing offence has interfered with free speech and we are confident that an offence of incitement to religious hatred will not do so either." ₅

Support for the legislation:

Many secular and mainline religious groups favor passage of the religious hatred bill because they feel it will protect religious minorities from verbal attacks, such as Jews, Muslims and Sikhs.

Opposition to the legislation:

In 2004-DEC, a famous comic actor, Rowan Atkinson, spoke against the bill on behalf of the National Secular Society. He said: "To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom....The freedom to criticize ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society and a law which attempts to say you can criticize and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed." He expressed concern that there have been "quite a few sketches" that he has performed that might be considered an offense under the proposed bill, "in the right hand and with the right energy." ₅

There is very strong opposition from conservative Protestant groups who feel that the law would have a "chilling" effect on the freedom of religious expression.

Evangelical Christian groups in Sweden and Canada have also expressed concern over religious hate and religious propaganda laws in their countries. However, their main concern involved clauses in the laws to criminalize hate speech directed against persons with a homosexual orientation. This is not present in the proposed British bill.

Religious author Michael Burleigh wrote in an opinion section of the Telegraph newspaper stating that: "The Barnabas Fund, which campaigns for Christians in Islamic societies, rightly points to how such a law will make it harder for them to protect people [in other countries] whose [religious] choice renders them second-class citizens, or who are denied any opportunity to worship publicly. Expressions of support for an apostate like Hirsi Ali - who has pointed out that she would have been executed in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia or Syria - will potentially attract the unwanted attentions of the Attorney General, police and courts. So might anyone who feels moved to expose paedophile shenanigans in the Roman Catholic Church. And then there are cults. I happen to think that Satanists and Scientologists are mad; am I going to be prosecuted for saying so in print?" Burleigh notes that "Ms Ali inspired the liberal film-maker Theo van Gogh into extending a traditionally earthy Dutch anti-clericalism to Islam; the result being that he was shot and stabbed, with a warning note to Ms Ali thoughtfully affixed to his corpse with a carving knife." ₄

Possibility of prosecution of Jewish and Christian groups under this law:

The Bible contains many religiously intolerant statements and describes many religiously intolerant actions. Most of the genocides mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) were motivated by intolerance of neighboring tribes' religious beliefs. Some biblical passages call for the execution of people of other faiths during times of war and peace.

Some examples from the Hebrew Scriptures were:

Some examples from the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) were:

It is quite conceivable that a religious group which stresses these biblical themes could be considered by the courts to be expressing religious hatred against other faiths, and thus be found guilty under the proposed bill if it were to become law. Even a single sermon could result in a charge being laid under the law against a pastor.

References used:

1. "UK Christians Oppose Proposed Religious Hatred Bill," The Christian Post, 2005-MAY-25, at: http://www.christianpost.com/

2. "Government drops religious hate law as election looms following intense free speech campaign,"  The Barnabas Fund, 2005-APR-06, at: http://www.barnabasfund.org/

3. "Muslims warn parties on hate bill," The Sunday Times, 2005-FEB-06, at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/

4. Michael Burleigh, "Religious hatred Bill is being used to buy Muslim votes," Opinion.telegraph, 2005-MAY-31, at: http://opinion.telegraph.co.uk/

5. "Blackadder star teams up with Evangelicals to oppose religious hatred bill," Ekklesia, 2004-DEC-06, at: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/

6. "Methodist church backs religious hatred bill," Ekklesia, 2004-DEC-13, at: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/

7. "Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill Factsheet," Hindu Council UK, at: http://www.hinducounciluk.org/

8. "Religious Hatred Bill Puts Freedom at Risk, Says Atkinson," The Independent, UK, 2004-DEC-04, at: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/9656

9. Lucy Vanakova, "Evangelical Christians Emphasise Opposition to Religious Hatred Bill," Christianity Today, 2005-MAY-20, at: http://www.christiantoday.com/

10. "British Government Announce Intention for Incitement to Religious Hatred Law," The Barnabas Fund, 2005-MAY-18, at: http://www.barnabasfund.org/

Copyright © 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally posted: 2005-MAY-31
Latest update: 2005-DEC-17
Author: B.A. Robinson