In the Sunday Times, Kathleen Stock warns that fear of offending is dragging us toward modern blasphemy laws, where protecting feelings trumps the freedom to think and speak clearly. Here’s an excerpt:
In the Commons last week a medieval-sounding concept made a comeback under modern cover. The Labour MP Tahir Ali began his question to the prime minister by noting that it was “Islamophobia awareness week” — so far, so very 21st century — but then suddenly plunged the House backwards in time. Specifically, he suggested the government consider introducing “measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions”.
Rising to answer, the Prime Minister offered a spirited rejection of blasphemy laws in the U.K., emphasising the vital roles of freedom of conscience and expression in a liberal democracy. Only joking — of course he didn’t. In fact he appeared to concede much of Ali’s point. “Desecration is awful and I think it should be condemned across the House,” he solemnly intoned. “We are committed to tackling all forms of hatred and division, including Islamophobia in all of its forms.”
This exchange was interesting because it brought something buried in talk of Islamophobia out into the light. Most definitions of the term connect it to racism. The all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims, for instance, whose definition is endorsed by Labour, says that Islamophobia is “rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”. And this, I think, is how most people use it — as a shorthand for rejecting a particular form of racist prejudice.
But Ali’s proposal to criminalise blasphemy was not about racism but simply a move in favour of religious protectionism, all the way down. And despite his ecumenical talk of “Abrahamic religions”, the use of the I-word made clear that his main concern was outlawing disrespect to the Quran and its contents, rather than the Christian or Hebrew Bibles. Meanwhile, Starmer’s meek response illustrated the way many in power will make concessions to illiberal Islamists, if only to avoid the perception of racist taint. …
Unless we start to disentangle racial prejudice against ethnic minorities, many of whom tend to be Muslim, from criticism of Islamic teaching, we risk sleepwalking into accepting new blasphemy laws because we are too embarrassed to look racist by protesting against them. As others have pointed out, there are already de facto blasphemy regulations operating in some areas, as shown by the case of the Batley teacher still believed to be in hiding for showing a caricature of Muhammad to his class in 2021. Such shameful episodes are similarly caused by our collective failure to insist aloud that you can cause religious offence to Muslims without being racist, and that the right to do so is fundamental to the British way of life.
Worth reading in full.
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