Religious Hatred Bill – opposition grows
Principled opposition to the proposed incitement to religious hatred law continues to grow, with the director of the National Campaign for the Arts, and the head of the Writers’ Guild anti-censorship committee both speaking out against it (source: The Stage).
Victoria Todd of the NCA:
This bill must not be allowed to proceed in its current form. We have serious worries that protest groups and troublemakers will use it as a justification for infringing an artist’s right to challenge, to stimulate and to provoke. The NCA will lobby hard to ensure that freedom of speech remains inviolable by this and future governments[…]
NCA members feel that this bill sets a dangerous precedent, enshrining legislation that could be misinterpreted or re-interpreted by a less liberal government.
Lydia Rivlin of the Writers’ Guild spoke at the Trades Union Congress, attacking the bill as a “Frankenstein monster of legislation”.
Gurpreet Bhatti wrote a play [Behzti] which observed that sometimes men in religious authority abuse the trust of their congregants. A mob of Sikh militants decided to take violent exception to this and, in the atmosphere being created by discussions about the current legislation, I think they probably had half an idea they would get away with riot and death threats.
Nine months after the riot there have been no arrests, no charges and Gurpreet is still in hiding for fear of her life. So, we have a playwright in this country who has been incarcerated for what she has written. The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill is already being applied, by proxy.
Meanwhile, Christian opposition to the bill is not confined to demented evangelicals worried about losing their right to vilify Islam. Simon Barrow, co-director of Ekklesia, spoke about the bill on UK Christian News TV. He claimed that public order legislation was the best way to tackle threat and harassment against particular community groups. Speaking of yesterday’s demonstration outside Parliament he said,
It is ironic that some people who are today enthusiastically waving placards calling for ‘free speech’ were recently calling for censorship of Jerry Springer – The Opera.
Ekklesia believes that Britain’s blasphemy laws should be completely withdrawn.
In a way, it would be fun if the likes of Stephen Green, Icqbal Sacranie, Peter Vardy and his merry minions were all busy suing the pants off each other. That would be hilarious. What we need is prosecutions of the people that attacked Behzti and Springer. We have a law in this country that allows for freedom of expression and speech. Attacking these people the way they did contravened the law – and others – so why are the religious allowed to get away with it?
“We have a law in this country that allows for freedom of expression ”
If we do, no one takes a blind bit of notice of it. It is as if it wasn’t there.
I presume you mean the HRA ?
I seem to recall something similar happened in Australia, with evangelical Christians suing Muslims and vice-versa.
Not sure sean. Might be the HRA but I suspect it pre-dates all that malarky. Anyway – too darn late (at night) to look it up now.
Hello friend
I believe that one has to lead. Yes this will amke one unpopular. God is not a good shield for
persecution but convenient.
If you have time click my site and tell me if Google or myself went off the edge. I am civil and
nonviolent and argue Google is doing the end around.
David Nollmeyer
Please if you have time check my site. I believe that Google indexing is more than proper. It is
collusion with impunity.
Peace
David
I checked Mr. Nollmeyer’s website(s). He reminds me very much of a guy I used to be in a band with. Note the words “used to be”.
Yeah, David. Peace man. You really should go a bit easier on the weed mate.
Google is a spider, a pretty clever one, but that’s all. There’s no conspiracy – look up Googlebomb at wikipedia for some clues.
Doesn’t the religious hatred bill threaten the Quran and Hadith? They are full of verses inciting hatred against homosexuals, non-Muslims, apostates and jews. Does anyone know if there is any provision in the bill to protect the holy texts? In theory, distributing copies of the Quran would be an offence under the act.