Why are the police enforcing Islamic blasphemy laws?

Most police forces in Britain may be reluctant to catch criminals, but they have become zealous enforcers of Islamic blasphemy law. The arrest of Christian preacher John Steele last month is the latest example of this disturbing new trend.

Steele was confronted by four police officers in a public square in Rotherham, Yorkshire. His apparent crime? He asked a Muslim woman about the Koran’s view on domestic violence. He wanted to know whether she thought Islamic scripture provides cover for men who assault their wives. This conversation didn’t occur out of the blue: she was volunteering at a street stall that offered advice for ethnic-minority women who might be trapped in violent relationships. Specifically, Steele referred to a passage in the Koran that encourages men to ‘scourge’ women who disobey them.

Newly released police bodycam footage shows Steele milling about harmlessly in the run-up to the arrest, holding a sign with a passage from the Acts of the Apostles. ‘The world has gone mad’, he said, as he was suddenly swarmed by four officers. A policewoman said: ‘We are recording an incident, a hate incident.’ She then told Steele that the woman at the domestic-violence stall ‘felt threatened by your manner’. The officers then asked him for his details so they could register a non-crime hate incident, but he refused and was then arrested.

The official grounds for Steele’s arrest was his refusal to provide his personal details to police, therefore breaching the Police Reform Act. Of course, the only reason he attracted the police’s attention in the first place was because of his questioning of the Koran. Thankfully, the Crown Prosecution Service has since confirmed that an investigation has been discontinued because it is ‘not needed in the public interest’.

Shockingly, Steele’s arrest is not an isolated incident. Take the case of Hamit Coskun, who was convicted under public-order laws in June for burning a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in London. A man charged after burning the Koran in Manchester back in February is currently awaiting trial.

Worse still, we can expect plenty more state censorship of blasphemy against Islam in the pipeline. Thanks to Angela Rayner’s ‘Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred and Islamophobia’, we will soon be shackled with an official definition of so-called Islamophobia. This is certain to chill open discussion about Islam and even Islamist extremism.

We cannot allow cases like John Steele’s to pass by unnoticed. Time and again, we see the police bending over backwards to harass and arrest critics of Islam in what is supposed to be a secular, liberal country. If we cannot freely question or criticise religion, then Britain will end up in a very dark place.

Hugo Timms is an editorial assistant at spiked.