Hamit Coskun Convicted After Burning Koran in Public

Hamit Coskun, the man who set fire to a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish Consulate, has been convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offence, with the judge claiming he has a “deep-seated hatred of Muslims”. The Telegraph has more.

Hamit Coskun shouted “f— Islam” and “Islam is religion of terrorism” while holding the religious text above his head during a protest on February 13th.

The 50-year-old, who was violently attacked by a passerby during the demonstration in London, went on trial last week, accused of an offence under the Public Order Act.

At Westminster magistrates’ court on Monday, he was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence of using disorderly conduct, which was motivated “in part by hostility towards members of a religious group, namely followers of Islam”.

Coskun’s lawyers argued that his prosecution was an attempt by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to reintroduce and expand blasphemy laws in the UK, 17 years after they were abolished.

The CPS said that Mr Coskun was not being prosecuted for burning the book.

They argued it was the combination of his derogatory remarks about Islam and the fact that it was done in public that made it an offence.

The CPS originally charged Coskun, who is an atheist, with harassing the “religious institution of Islam”.

However, the charge was later amended after free speech campaigners took up his cause and argued he was essentially being accused of blasphemy.

District Judge John McGarva said, “there was a real problem with the original charge, which referred to Islam as if it was a person, when it is not”.

He said, however, that the current prosecution was not “an attempt to bring back and expand blasphemy law”.

He said: “A decision needs to be made as to whether your conduct was simply you exercising your right to protest and freedom of speech or whether your behaviour crossed a line into criminal conduct.”

Katy Thorne KC, Coskun’s barrister, had argued that even the amended charges against him effectively criminalised any public burning of a religious book and were tantamount to blasphemy laws. 

“It is effectively chilling the right of citizens to criticise religion,” she said.

She said Coskun’s actions were not motivated by hostility towards the followers of Islam but to the religion itself. 

Judge McGarva, however, said he did not accept that argument.

Addressing Coskun, he said: “You believe Islam is an ideology which encourages its followers to violent paedophilia and a disregard for the rights of non-believers. 

“You don’t distinguish between the two. I find you have a deep-seated hatred of Islam and its followers. That is based on your experiences in Turkey and the experiences of your family.”

Worth reading in full.

The Free Speech Union tweeted:

This is deeply disappointing. Everyone should be able to exercise their rights to protest peacefully and to freedom of expression, regardless of how offensive or upsetting it may be to some people.

We paid for Hamit’s defence, along with the National Secular Society, and stand ready to provide any assistance Hamit needs to get this judgment overturned. Our support for him remains undiminished.

Religious tolerance is an important British value, but it doesn’t require non-believers to respect the blasphemy codes of believers. On the contrary, it requires people of faith to tolerate those who criticise and protest against their religion, just as their values and beliefs are tolerated.

The FSU is on the front line of the fight to protect lawful free expression in the UK.

Cases like Hamit’s show just how fragile that freedom has become — and how urgently it must be defended.

If you believe no one should be convicted for offending religious sensibilities, join us and help support the work we do.

Stop Press: Support the FSU crowdfunder for Hamit’s appeal here.

At 12.30pm on Monday June 2nd at Westminster Magistrates Court Hamit Coskum, a man who’d spent almost 10 years in jail in Turkey as a political prisoner, was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence, namely, disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress. Incredibly, part of the prosecution’s evidence that he’d caused someone harassment, alarm or distress was that a Muslim man who witnessed his protest attacked him with a knife. …

This is a really important case. As Hamit himself said after the verdict: “This decision is an assault on free speech and will deter others from exercising their democratic rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression. As an activist, I will continue to campaign against the threat of Islam. Christian Blasphemy laws were repealed in this country more than 15 years ago and it cannot be right to prosecute someone for blaspheming against Islam. Would I have been prosecuted if I’d set fire to a copy of the bible outside Westminster Abbey? I doubt it.” …

Anything you can contribute to help us fight this important case would be enormously appreciated. We cannot let the authorities introduce a Muslim blasphemy law via the backdoor.