CPS Appeals Against Acquittal of Hamit Coskun for Burning Quran
The Crown Prosecution Service is appealing against the acquittal of Hamit Coskun, who was convicted of burning the Quran in a protest, reigniting fears Britain could introduce blasphemy laws by the back door. The Times has the story.
Hamit Coskun, 51, was told last month that he had the right to offend, after a High Court judge quashed a previous conviction of a religiously aggravated public order offence.
Coskun, who was born in Turkey, was convicted in June after shouting “f*** Islam” while holding the burning book aloft outside the Turkish consulate in London in February.
When his conviction was overturned last month at Southwark crown court it was deemed a “victory for free speech” by campaigners, who had feared the original decision paved the way to a de facto blasphemy law.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has appealed to the High Court, asking it to rule on whether the decision was reached correctly. If successful, the court could then overturn Coskun’s acquittal or order a fresh hearing. …
Stephen Evans, the Chief Executive of the National Secular Society, said: “This appeal marks a renewed assault on free expression by prosecutors. The CPS seems determined to establish a blasphemy law by the back door. Its approach effectively treats those who are targeted with violence for offending religious sensibilities as the wrongdoers. That is an alarming inversion of justice.” …
Lord Young of Acton, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, added that overturning Coskun’s acquittal would send “a message to Muslim extremists that if they want to force non-believers to observe their blasphemy codes all they need do is violently attack a blasphemer and he will then be guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence”. …
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “There is no law to prosecute people for ‘blasphemy’ and burning a religious text on its own is not a criminal act. Our case remains that Hamit Coskun’s words, choice of location and burning of the Quran amounted to disorderly behaviour, and that at the time he demonstrated hostility towards a religious or racial group, which is a crime.”
You’re allowed to burn a Quran as long as you do it privately. And don’t you dare criticise Islam because that’s hostility to a religious group. But there’s no blasphemy law, honest.
Worth reading in full.
The Free Speech Union tweeted:
The Government is struggling to bring in a Muslim blasphemy law through the backdoor, so instead it’s going to try and do it via the front.
The Crown Prosecution Service is seeking to overturn a High Court judge’s judgment acquitting Hamit Coskun last month.
Hamit was originally convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offence for burning a copy of the Quran in protest outside the Turkish consulate in London.
The judgment in the appeal hearing was a welcome reaffirmation of ancient English liberties. Mr Justice Bennathan said: “The right to freedom of expression, if it is a right worth having, must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb.”
Now the CPS says it isn’t happy with the judgment.
This is hugely significant because the outcome will set legal precedent and will almost certainly be cited in all future cases involving not just Quran burning but public challenges to Islam in general.
The CPS is arguing that what Hamit did was disorderly not because it was blasphemous, but because it was an ‘act of desecration’ that provoked those who see it as blasphemous — namely Muslims — to commit acts of violence.
If the Crown wins, it will mean we effectively have a Muslim blasphemy law in the UK. But if Hamit wins, it will be a victory for all of us who believe in freedom of expression and the fundamental liberty to criticise any religion.
The FSU continues to stand with Hamit. We’ve arranged for the same top legal team who won the case in the Crown Court – Tim Owen KC and Rosalind Comyn, instructed by 3D Solicitors – to represent him.
Donate to Hamit’s crowdfunder [here].
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The Uniparty marches on. Have the Tories and Labour seen the polls recently? The public doesn’t take kindly to political persecution.
Muslims are never persecuted for their hate speech.
The entire ‘Koran’ is hate speech and a war manifesto.
It is Christophobic in the extreme.
But that is of course okay with the CPS and ‘justice system’.
All Korans need to be studied, understood, then burnt.
In fact with the threat of a real blasphemy law approaching in the rear view mirror and critical analysis of Islam should be made now while not a crime. Did Mohammed exist ? is a key question, in the light of lack of evidence at the time, see Youtube discussions by Jay Smith and Robert Spencer, very learned and scholarly authors, and of course Tom Holland whose Ch 4 documentary was pulled after death threats….Also the very clear evidence that the Quran contains texts which make no sense in Arabic but if read in the light of Aramaic Syriac language makes perfect sense, showing background texts to the Quran and its history as belonging to northern Syria and not southern deserts of Arabia. Etc etc
Meanwhile, the guy who tried to kill Hamit is enjoying his freedom. But the guy who criticises a belief system by burning some paper is continually dragged through the mire. British justice, huh.
I think burning anyone’s holy book to antagonistically make a point is silly, as there are better ways to demonstrate your opposition to something, but it sure as hell shouldn’t be a criminal offence. Same as writing angry posts online, really. This Quran burning thing is like a litmus test for whether freedom of expression/speech really exists or not, or if the law is being applied to all consistently. The UK is failing dismally in this regard, as we know, and standing before a fair and just judge/magistrate appears to be down to pot luck. It’s like the Iranian dissident: Niyak Ghorbani, who routinely peacefully holds a factually correct sign at the hate marches stating ”Hamas is a terrorist organization”, and his arrests have gone into double figures now. And it’s like the plight of anti-Islam activist: Ryan Williams, who is awaiting his court date to see what happens with these faux ‘terrorism’ charges he’s accused of. The proof that there is no genuine freedom of speech in the UK just keeps on coming, yet Starmer has the ruddy cheek to say the opposite to Trump and Vance; ”I’m a terrorist suspect for anti-Islam social media posts. According to the… Read more »
It clear that when you travel carry only a burner phone that you use only for occasional calls your real stuff you send over by fedex.
Its the elite protected community isn’t it
Demonstrating hostility is a very vague term.
“Policy”
https://www.cps.gov.uk/about-cps/who-we-are#:~:text=Director%20of-,Policy,-Related%20information
https://www.stophateuk.org/2015/10/16/20-years-of-challenging-hate-9-by-baljit-ubhey-obe-chief-crown-prosecutor-for-cps-london/
They are hate jockeys.
We are all fortunate to live in a hugely diverse and vibrant city, however, this means that it is ever more important for everyone who works, lives and visits the city to be vigilant to hate crime. Those who commit hate crime attack the diversity which makes this city so great.
This is astounding totalitarian drivel that bears no relation to reality.
But some hate crimes are more equal than others.
The process is the punishment.
This is victim blaming… if you do anything that might make someone lacking in self control attack you – well, it’s you that’s guilty!
The Kurdish Terrorist doesn’t mind at all, because he’s not paying for anything, nor for the British security people now forced to protect him, and his little Publicity Stunt worked wonders in speeding up his asylum application, which the Home Office had stalled because they knew that he and his family were perfectly safe in Turkey or his mother’s native Armenia, but they deliberately drove across the whole length and breadth of Europe, through multitudes of SAFE NATIONS, in order to reach the Welfare Benefits Free Stuff Capital of the World, so they’ll never have to work again, or even bother to learn English.
The CPS would get some respect if they challenged the soft sentence for the man who tried to kill Mr Coskun, that would go some way to demonstrate that they do not favour the Muslim community over the rest of us.
Bust that’s not goung to happen is it?
I misread Crown Prosecution Service as Clown Prosecution Service.
The CPS is just another quango that’s been infiltrated by the loons.
This is very serious and worrying development: the CPS, itself an institution embroiled in accusations of semi corrupt interference in the Lucy Leby investigation, is now increasing this reputation for politicised action in pandering to governmental desperation for Muslim votes. Coskun is allowed to reject Islam and burn its core text, he was hurting no one unlike his attacker. Who is the DPP who runs the CPS – Stephen Parkinson abouut whom a comment in the FT wrote:
20 years as a defence lawyer, defending people charged with financial crimes? He helped Blair’s government with the inquiry into Dr David Kelly’s untimely death? And with the shooting dead of a Brazilian electrician by armed police because he lived in the same block of flats as a suspect? Now he is the DPP! What is happening to this country?!?!
This DPP is in effect acting as an arm of state blasphemy legislation in seeking to overturn a fully reasoned judicial judgement on Mr Coskun. Starmer’s Stasi grows more and more shamelessly inquisitorial.
This is not smuggling through some shadowy “back door” under cover of darkness, or slipping it in through a crack in the foundation. This is entering through the spotlighted main entrance, rendered visible to anyone with eyes (or a machete) to see.
Whos pulling CPS’s strings I wonder?