by Stefan Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
LONDON (Worthy News) – British Christian leaders and politicians fear a new working group advising the government on “anti-Muslim hatred /Islamophobia” will lead to blasphemy legislation that would further limit freedom of expression.
In a statement obtained by Worthy News, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, said that the “rise in anti-Muslim hate crime is unacceptable and has no place in our society. That’s why we’ve committed to defining Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia as a crucial step forward in tackling it and creating a society where everyone feels safe and welcome.”
However, David Alton, who chairs Britain’s Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, warned against pursuing any semblance of blasphemy laws in the country.
“The U.K. should tread very carefully before incorporating anything which resembles a blasphemy law into British Statute,” Alton said in published remarks.
“In jurisdictions which have such laws, I have personally seen how they can be misused against people of other beliefs or no belief – including death sentences and long-term imprisonment.”
It was a reference to countries such as Pakistan and Iran, where Christians and others have languished in prisons for years for alleged blasphemy against Islam while some have been killed.
Danny Webster, director of advocacy for the U.K. Evangelical Alliance, said Islamophobia should be set within the broader, legal understanding of the freedom to disagree with those of other faiths.
ANTI-MUSLIM HATRED
“Any definition of anti-Muslim hatred, or Islamophobia, has to safeguard the freedom of others to criticize religious belief and support the freedom for people to change their beliefs,” Webster stressed.
If a definition of Islamophobia means that views about perceived identity can be subjectively classed as “hatred,” then this would limit freedom of expression and religious belief, he stressed.
“It is vital that we encourage good relationships between people of different faiths, and this is fostered by accepting deep differences and allowing free expression, rather than either criminalizing disagreement or pretending it doesn’t exist,” Webster added.
The advisory group’s chair, Dominic Grieve KC, admitted in a statement seen by Worthy News that “Islamophobia is as challenging to define as its existence is undoubted.”
However, he stressed, “We need to balance addressing the lived experience of those who are victims of it and the right of British Muslims to feel heard and protected as equal citizens of our country.”
He added that these rights should be “with the unwavering requirement to maintain freedom of thought and expression under law for all. I welcome the government’s decision to bring forward this needed work. And I am hopeful that this commission will come up with principles in defining Islamophobia which are compatible with those requirements and can thus help support positive change in our country.”
The government suggested that the advisory group is needed as in the year ending March 2024, “there were 140,561 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales,” although that was a “5 percent decrease compared with the previous year.”
Yet Alton called it a “ploy” to introduce blasphemy laws that Christians fear could lead to persecution of non-Muslims in Britain and beyond.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
U.S. President Donald J. Trump claims Russia is “making concessions” in talks to end the Ukraine war and says Kyiv is “happy” about progress toward a possible peace agreement after nearly four years of fighting.
A prominent U.S. senator who served as a Navy pilot and later as an astronaut faces a Pentagon investigation — and a possible court-martial — after joining a handful of lawmakers in a video urging U.S. troops to refuse “illegal orders” under President Donald J. Trump.
Desperate parents in northwest Nigeria were still missing their children Monday as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) confirmed that suspected Islamic gunmen kidnapped at least 303 students and 12 teachers at a Catholic school — the nation’s largest such attack in more than a year.
A deadly crash has raised fresh concerns within the government and industry over India’s ambition to export its Tejas fighter jet and to reduce reliance on older foreign-built fighters at a time when tensions remain high with neighboring Pakistan, like India, a nuclear-armed nation.
Thailand has put its military in charge of tackling the worst flood crisis in years, after some areas reported the heaviest recorded rainfall in centuries, killing more than a dozen people.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House meeting last week with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was “civil but difficult,” according to multiple U.S. officials cited by Channel 12 and Axios, with tensions flaring behind closed doors over the pace of Saudi–Israel normalization.
The U.S. Space Force has quietly awarded roughly half a dozen “Golden Dome” contracts to build competing space-based missile-defense prototypes, kicking off an industry race for future production deals worth tens of billions of dollars, according to multiple sources briefed on the awards.