Koran Burner Hamit Coskun Wins Landmark Blasphemy Case at High Court
Hamit Coskun, who burned a Koran in a demonstration outside the Turkish consulate, has won a landmark blasphemy case at the High Court, sparking calls for Stephen Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions, to resign. The Telegraph has more.
Hamit Coskun, 51, previously succeeded in overturning a conviction for holding up a flaming copy of the holy book and shouting “f—- Islam”, in what he insisted was a political protest.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) appealed against the decision, claiming his actions were criminal and amounted to disorderly conduct.
In a judgment handed down on Friday, Lord Justice Warby and Ms Justice Obi upheld the decision to overturn the conviction.
The Free Speech Union, which supported Coskun throughout proceedings, has now called for Stephen Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions, to resign following the “humiliating defeat”.
Free speech campaigners had argued that if Coskun lost his case, Britain would have introduced a blasphemy law by the back door.
At a hearing earlier this month, Tim Owen KC, representing Coskun, said the appeal by the CPS was attempting to make burning any book on the streets of London a disorderly act as a matter of law.
“This is a hopeless appeal,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what book it is, it could be Harry Potter or the Koran, but setting fire to it in central London completes the element of disorder.”
Before Friday’s judgment, Coskun warned that if he lost, he may be forced to “flee the UK and move to the US where President [Donald] Trump has stood for free speech and against Islamic extremism”.
The Telegraph previously revealed that the Trump administration was in talks to help Coskun, with a senior US administration official saying his case was “one of several cases the administration has made note of”.
Coskun, who is of Armenian-Kurdish descent, travelled from his home in the Midlands to the Turkish consulate in Knightsbridge in February last year.
He then set fire to the holy book and held it above his head, shouting “Islam is a religion of terrorism” and “f— Islam”.
As he did so, passer-by Moussa Kadri attacked him, slashing at Coskun with a blade and then kicking him when he fell to the ground.
In September, Kadri was given a 20-week prison sentence for attacking Coskun, suspended for 18 months.
Coskun was originally charged by the CPS with harassing the “religious institution of Islam”.
However, the charge was later amended after the National Secular Society (NSS) and the Free Speech Union (FSU) took up his cause and argued he was being accused of blasphemy.
Following the judgment, Toby said:
This appeal should never have been brought by the Crown Prosecution Service, just as Hamit should never have been prosecuted.
We have not had blasphemy laws in this country for 18 years and for that reason, this prosecution was bound to fail.
Yet the CPS has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to bring one back via the back door – and one that just enforces Muslim blasphemy codes, not Christian ones.
In light of this humiliating defeat, I think the Director of Public Prosecutions has no choice but to resign.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Celebrating his victory, Hamit writes in the Telegraph that “the High Court has struck back at the Islamification of Britain“.
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You might argue that challenging any institution is frowned upon by the clerisy no matter what the case.
Is it even possible to harass an institution.
Good.
They (you know who) just won’t give up – anything to stem the tide turned against their multiculti dogma.
It shows their priorities, silencing dissent, curbing free speech, giving away British sovereignty, trashing the rule of law.
Gosh, what good news for British Taxpayers, who now get to support this convicted Kurdish Terrorist & his family for the rest of their lives, with the added expense of Police Protection, all thanks to his little Publicity Stunt. He would, of course, be perfectly safe in his mother’s ancestral homeland of Christian Armenia, but Christian Armenia’s welfare benefits are nothing compared to the Golden Goose of Britain, and his daughter would have little chance of marrying a white man in Christian Armenia. Meanwhile, here’s another little immigration scam for his fellow Turks, which has been operating under the very noses of the British People since 1963: “The Turkish European Communities Association Agreement (ECAA) pathway remains a significant immigration route for Turkish nationals seeking to establish businesses or work in the UK. DESPITE BREXIT fundamentally changing the UK’s relationship with European agreements, existing Turkish nationals continue to benefit from this historic treaty, which provides unique opportunities unavailable to other non-UK nationals. The agreement, originally signed between Turkey and the European Economic Community in 1963, became applicable to the UK when it joined the EEC in 1973. This created a special framework that allows Turkish nationals to establish businesses and work… Read more »
That explains this:
The towns with the MOST barbers as Britain is hit by explosion of high street salons – use our interactive map to see where your area ranks | Daily Mail Online
You do know it is the Turkish authorities which define him a terrorist, right?
I do know that the Turkish authorities RELEASED HAMIT COSKUN from prison AFTER HE SERVED 10 YEARS for being a Kurdish Terrorist.
He was completely FREE to continue living in Turkey, NOT THREATENED BY MUSLIMS, and he was also FREE to go to his mother’s ancestral homeland of CHRISTIAN ARMENIA, where he would have been perfectly safe.
There was no need at all for him to drive his car across the length of Europe, passing through many SAFE COUNTRIES, to reach Britain, with which he has NO CONNECTION AT ALL, and he claimed to speak NO ENGLISH, yet somehow he’s coming out with all these public “statements” in English. It seems to be a Kurdish Miracle.
No doubt the BBC will soon be giving him his own talk show, co-hosted by Bangladeshi Beheading Enthusiast Shamima Begum, and he is being lauded by the UK Kurdish Solidarity Network, with branches in various cities:
Local Groups – Kurdistan Solidarity Network
The worldwide Kurdish Freedom Movement was founded by Abdullah Ocalan.
“Öcalan was one of the original founders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 1978. This was during a period of intense repression within Turkey, of Kurds and other minority groups, and the PKK was originally formed as a MILITANT GROUP organised around a MARXIST-LENINIST philosophy and has spent DECADES ENGAGING IN ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST THE TURKISH STATE.”
Well, there’s not enough “vape shops”, “American Candy Stores” and “barbers” to go around if you ask me.
ETA: You beat me to it! 🤣
Your mentioning the Fake American Candy Stores inspired me to search for more information about them, because they are certainly not owned or operated by Americans. Who then? This comment on Reddit by a “TwinCitian” is very interesting:
“It seems that the candy stores are part of an AFGHAN MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME.”
“An investigation in Private Eye from August 2019 alleged that more than 100 of London’s West End souvenir shops were tax-evading outlets with links to Afghan nationals. Many of Oxford Street’s sweet shops appeared after 2019 in properties that previously sold souvenirs, when lockdowns allowed only essential shops selling food (aka sweets) to remain open.”
Source: https://www.timeout.com/london/news/revealed-the-shocking-secrets-of-oxford-streets-sweet-shops-and-souvenir-stores-050522
More public comments from Reddit: —“A lot of American candy stores have opened up here in Sweden after the pandemic. I wondered about that, now I know why.” —“Westminster Council is trying to pursue the ones on Oxford Street for a total of £7.9 million in unpaid taxes, but the ownership tracks back to anonymous companies with no assets. That bill will probably never be paid.” —“Wow that’s actually kinda creepy because in my hometown in western Germany within the last few months we also got like 4 or 5 new candy shops mainly themed with american stuff and my city is notorious for its many many shops which only exist for money laundering. Like super sh**ty kebab stores where food is very very very disgusting but they keep getting good reviews from customers.” —“They’re money laundering fronts for organised crime outfits. They change ownership from person to person sometimes within a month or so. This in itself is a strong signifier of fraud and money laundering. The prices in these shops are nuts! Like so high that very few real customers would actually buy anything. But the high prices mean that the people wanting to launder the money don’t… Read more »
But… it’s pretty clear, isnt it, that Islam is not ‘just’ a religious movement, but a political one too, surely?
Yes. Islam is inseparable from government, it is a theocracy.
Religious law from sacred texts or divine revelation forms the basis of the legal and political system. Church and State are one and the same.
It remains unreasonable, however , to go around setting things on fire in public. Some kind of civil action , or health and safety action needs to be brought in relation to what is clearly arson. Otherwise , where will it end?
Arson is defined as destruction of someone else’s property by setting it on fire. Hence, someone burning a book he owns isn’t arson.
If he took the necessary precautions to ensure that other people and their property were at no risk of damage from the fire.
Arson is deliberately setting someone else’s property on fire. This didn’t happen. It also didn’t happen accidentally, hence, necessary precautions wrt other people’s property were taken.
May I assume this is irony? I certainly hope so.
Unreasonable is not illegal.
Well done the FSU, yet again and thank you.
There seems to be a lot of objections to this chap for some reason.
personally I’m in his side.
Same.
As an FSU subscriber I’m glad to see this victory over the DPP. However, I’m not sure that support for book burning is such a good idea. It’s great street theatre enjoyed by totalitarians the world over.