The government argues this is needed because there’s been an upsurge in anti-Muslim hatred since the terrorist attack on Southern Israel on 7th October 2023. We reject that argument. We already have laws in this country that protect people from religious hatred, as well as laws protecting people of all faiths from discrimination. The way to protect Muslims is to enforce those statutes, not to introduce a Muslim blasphemy law by the back door. Introducing special protections for one religious group would be an affront to the principle that everyone should be equal in the eyes of the law. It would give Muslims a privileged status that people of other faiths do not have. That risks exacerbating community tensions. As Fiyaz Mughal, the Muslim founder of Tel Mama has pointed out: “Any definition that marks out one community is going to cause major social divisions.”

An official definition would also have a chilling effect on free speech. Some of those pushing for it have said that drawing attention to the over-representation of Muslim men of Pakistani heritage in grooming gangs is ‘Islamophobic’. Indeed, Baroness Casey, in her official report on the grooming gangs scandal, said one of the reasons so few people raised the alarm and officials were so slow to act is because they were afraid of being labelled ‘Islamophobic’. The Labour MP Sarah Champion, who was one of the few MPs to speak up about the issue, was shortlisted for ‘Islamophobe of the Year’ by the Islamic Human Rights Commission.

Britain has a storied tradition of religious tolerance. Surveys show nine out of ten people here are comfortable around those with different religious beliefs – more than anywhere else in Europe. That is something we should be proud of and we shouldn’t jeopardise it by privileging one faith above all others.