Iqbal Sacranie, the head of the Muslim Council of Britain, is not my favourite man. He is not a liberal and in seeking to make laws against religious hatred a crime, he does not represent a liberal cause. He does not want Islam to suffer criticism or be the subject of debate. Our free speech will suffer if he succeeds.
Yet he has my sympathy as he faces a police investigation into remarks he made on the BBC's Radio 4 PM programme on 3rd January, when he said homosexuality is harmful.
I doubt the police will find there is a crime to prosecute, even as they try to piece one together under the Public Order Act. That crime is one the government intends to bring on later as it looks at a clutch of 'hate crimes'. Meanwhile the government presses the police to investigate all complaints of crime 'aggravated' by 'hate'.
Were there a law banning comments critical of homosexuality it would be very sad indeed for Britain, and a severe blow against freedom and free speech here. But there is no law, and it is outrageous that police are leaning on people and 'investigating' them. They should be telling the complainants where to go.
January 11, 2006
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