Britain’s new Labour government is likely to adopt a definition of Islamophobia “so vague” that it will act as an effective “Islamic blasphemy code,” critics have said.
Commentators warn that the proposals would do “virtually nothing to tackle instances of anti-Muslim hatred,” but would further “impede and restrict freedom of thought and speech.” This would fit in with prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s clampdown on free speech following the nationwide riots triggered by last month’s Southport stabbing.
Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, also told The European Conservative that “if the authorities start prosecuting people for ‘Islamophobia,’ but not people who blaspheme against Christ, that would be the clearest example of our two-tier criminal justice system we’ve had so far. And there’s a lot of competition.”
Meanwhile, author Douglas Murray has described the West’s inclination to “promote every belief system apart from the one that got us here” as “madness.”
Labour supported the adoption of a definition of Islamophobia while it was in opposition, and accepted it internally in 2019.
The definition states:
Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.
Christian campaigner Tim Dieppe said that Labour’s adoption of the definition for its internal affairs “means that no Labour politician dares to say anything that could possibly be perceived to be Islamophobic for fear of being suspended or expelled from the party,” adding:
This must be resisted by all means possible. If people are no longer free to criticize Islamic beliefs and practices then we will have lost the country to Islam.
The National Secular Society has also warned in an open letter to the government that “adopting an ‘Islamophobia’ definition will inflame, rather than dispel, community tensions and division.”
If adopted, the definition would not be legally binding, but The Daily Telegraph notes that “organisations would be urged to adopt in a similar way to the anti-Semitism definition accepted under [then-prime minister] Theresa May in 2016.”
