It’s a story that one might expect to come out of Tehran or Lahore. Instead, it comes from London: a man was formally charged with insulting Islam. This has been a long time in the offing, but never before had a Western government crossed the line and levied criminal charges against someone for violating Islamic blasphemy laws that have made their way into the legal system of a Western nation, under the pretext of banning “harassment.”
After a public outcry, the British authorities walked back the charge, but there was no indication that in the absence of that outcry, they would have done so. Given the trajectory of modern Britain, it’s extremely likely that we will be seeing this charge again.
The man who was charged was Hamit Coskun, whose offense was burning a copy of the Qur’an back in February. For that, he was initially charged, according to a Thursday report in the Telegraph, with “harassing the ‘religious institution of Islam.’” The Telegraph added, “It is thought to be the first time that anyone facing such an offence has been prosecuted for harassing an ‘institution’ in the form of Islam under the Public Order Act.” But in Britain today, it is not likely to be the last.
Adding insult to injury was the fact that when Coskun burned the Qur’an, a knife-wielding Muslim named Moussa Kadri charged at him and began kicking him as he fell to the ground. Despite the fact that Kadri committed actual assault and Coskun was simply making a statement, they experienced for themselves why British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has earned the nickname “Two-Tier Keir” for his unequal application of justice: The Independent reported that Coskun remained in custody while Kadri was released on bail.
Burning a book, any book, is an act that many regard with distaste and associate with National Socialism. It is thus important to point out that Coskun is himself a Turk of Muslim background, not of the racism-addled white supremacists of Starmer’s lurid imaginings. He burned the book not because he is a National Socialist, but, according to the Telegraph, as a “protest against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, and an act of solidarity with Salwan Momika – an Iraqi refugee who was assassinated in Sweden in January after burning Korans in repeated public protests.” Above all, it's a matter of the freedom of expression: if one group can restrict speech on the basis of a perceived "insult" or "offense" to it, it has become a protected class, above criticism. That's the road to tyranny.
And so Coskun’s lawyer, Akua Reindorf, criticized the charge of “harassing” Islam as “plainly defective” and said that it was “tantamount” to charging Coskun with blasphemy. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick explained: “Burning the Koran, like any religious text, is something that some people find very offensive and few people would condone, but that’s not the point. There are many things in our society that people find offensive, but that doesn’t make them criminal. Parliament abolished blasphemy almost 20 years ago. They were right to do so. It is not for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or courts to create a blasphemy law in this country by the back door.”
Jenrick was heard. GB News reported Friday that the CPS has backed off — for now. It issued a statement saying: “We charged Hamit Coskun on the basis his actions caused harassment, alarm or distress — which is a criminal offence — and that this was motivated by hostility towards a religious or racial group. As part of our continuous review of ongoing cases we concluded the wording of the charge was incorrectly applied and we have substituted a new charge to more accurately reflect the alleged offence.”
Has anyone been charged with hostility toward members of a religious group other than Islam? Will such charges ever be brought in a land where jihad preachers frequently boast about how they will take over soon and impose Islamic law upon the country? Come on, man!
Related: Islamization: Another 'Conspiracy Theory' Turns Out to Have Been True All Along
Anyway, note that while the CPS retreated in Coskun’s case, it did not say anything about dropping “harassing the religious institution of Islam” from its charge list. Someone else could, and likely will, get charged with this later. And the charges against Coskun as they now stand are bad enough: it’s a “criminal offence” in Britain to cause “alarm or distress” to someone? Could there possibly be a more subjective criminal offense? Clearly this law will be a tool in the hands of the powerful that they will use to silence the powerless, and that is exactly how it is being used against Hamit Coskun.
What the British government is doing is exactly what Jenrick said: introducing Islamic blasphemy laws by the back door, and killing the freedom of speech. If Britain somehow manages to survive, or revive, as a free society and a true history of our absurd age is ever written there, the legal persecution of Hamit Coskun will be seen as one of the milestones of the nation’s descent into totalitarian madness.
