Here I am with yet another post about free speech in the United Kingdom, or more accurately, the lack of free speech. These stories really make me appreciate the First Amendment.
The fine was only $325, but a man was convicted for burning a Koran outside the Turkish consulate in February. Actually, that's not quite correct. He wasn't convicted for burning the Koran … he was convicted of committing a religiously aggravated public order offense. If you've been reading our posts about the deterioration of free speech in the U.K. and Europe, you know that there's no greater crime than causing someone "anxiety" or "distress." It's all about keeping the peace, especially as England and the continent are being overrun by unfettered migration from Muslim countries.
This day should go down in history as a dark day of British democracy.
— Khadija Khan (@KhadijaKhan__) June 2, 2025
“The man who burnt a Koran outside a Turkish consulate committed a religiously aggravated public order offence, a judge has ruled.”https://t.co/GHskUshrXV
A stranger rushed at a guy with a knife and tried to stab him, without any provocation whatsoever. And the victim of the knife attack is the one who has been convicted of a crime. https://t.co/bWL0JcZRkC
— Iona Italia, PhD 🇦🇺 (@IonaItalia) June 2, 2025
Well, there was so provocation. While he was burning the book, someone from the religion of peace with a knife kicked him and spat on him.
Hamit Coskun, 50, had a Kurdish father and Armenian mother.
Reuters reports:
"Burning a religious book, although offensive, to some is not necessarily disorderly," said Judge John McGarva.
"What made his conduct disorderly was the timing and location of the conduct and that all this was accompanied by abusive language. There was no need for him to use the 'F word' and direct it towards Islam."
Oh yeah, he shouted "F**k Islam" while holding the book aloft. That was unnecessary.
Coskun's lawyer argued that the prosecution amounted to an attempt to bring back a blasphemy law that was abolished in England in 2008.
UK public order law says that you are culpable if, in speech and other expressive acts, you could "provoke" others into violence. We have written a veto on speech into law that is exclusively available to groups willing to be violent. pic.twitter.com/6ifXQI8b1r
— Sam Bowman (@s8mb) June 2, 2025
The proposition that free speech cannot coexist with multiculturalism is no longer a criticism of the multicultural state, it is now the legal basis of a regime of state censorship that arrests thousands of Britons every year https://t.co/XaYoWQeh0g
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) June 2, 2025
In a recent post, I reported that the London Metropolitan Police are making 1,000 arrests a month for social media posts that might cause distress to certain groups (e.g., migrants).
I’ve been reliably told that they have free speech in the UK so I don’t think this story is real.
— Monty Skew (@ithinkyouknow8) June 3, 2025
The fanatical Muslim who attempted to murder him has yet to face justice. Mainstream media are not reporting about the knife attack. Utterly shocking!
— Wake Up Britain! (@starwarsfanboys) June 2, 2025
That's the other concern overseas besides hate speech … knife attacks. As I recently reported, an 18-year-old woman in the U.K. lost an appeal against her 17-year jail term after being convicted of murder for killing her rapist with a knife she carried for self-protection. The judge said it did not count as self-defense because she had taken a knife to the scene.
Britain most definitely is bringing back blasphemy laws, and not on behalf of Christians.
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