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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill Through to Next Stage
The British government this week survived a backbench revolt over the introduction of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill.
The law, which seeks to ban what it calls ‘incitement to religious hatred’, was passed through to its next stage with a majority of just 57 votes.
The measure would create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred and would apply to comments made in public or in the media, as well as through written material.
An amendment from a coalition of Tory and Lib Dem MPs to block the bill failed, resulting in the bill receiving a second reading. It will now go on to its committee stage.
Critics, including many from within the church and other faith groups, as well as entertainers, say the measure will limit freedom of expression.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke says, ‘What this bill isn't about is stopping anybody telling jokes about religion, stopping anybody ridiculing religions or engaging in robust debate about religion.
‘It won't stop people from proselytizing and it will not curb artistic freedom - neither the purpose nor the effect of this bill is to limit freedom of expression.’
Shadow home secretary David Davis said the bill was ‘too general, too wide, too vague, too dangerous’ and expressed doubts that it would protect the minorities it sought to help.
Home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, Alistair Carmichael said the government was ‘playing fast and loose’ with essential freedoms.
Social commentator Mal Fletcher, in his editorial on this site, says: ‘Laws on their own will never eradicate the bitter attitudes which lead a small minority of individuals – most of whom operate outside mainstream religious communities – to violence.’
‘Once we give up a section of our right to free speech, we almost never have the opportunity to regain it. What’s to stop law-makers in ten or twenty years from now using the present bill as a precedent for even more draconian measures?’
'And to single out religious belief as this bill is doing is an act of discrimination. Why not single out other forms of belief in which there is the potential for heated debate – political beliefs, for example? They are often defended with as much passion as religious beliefs.’
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(For the full editorial on this site, click here.)
Keywords: Racial and religious hatred bill | News | incitement to religious hatred | Charles Clarke | British government | freedom of expression | David Davis | Liberal Democrats
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