Since Keir Starmer became Prime Minister, three men have been arrested for burning copies of the Quran. Two have been prosecuted. The FSU has represented all three. Which is why we need your help.
In spite of our recent victory, the CPS is still prosecuting another Free Speech Union Member. On 1st of February 2025, Martin Frost set fire to a copy of the Quran in Manchester city centre. The police were soon on the scene and he told them he was demonstrating solidarity with another anti-Islam activist in Sweden, Salwan Momika, who'd recently been murdered after burning a Quran. Martin was charged with an offence under the Public Order Act 1986.
We believe the case against Martin should be thrown out. There's no offence of blasphemy in English law — it was repealed 18 years ago. In our recent case, the High Court has been clear: other laws, like public order offences, cannot be twisted in an attempt to bring this offence back via the rear door.
Despite representations from a crack legal team provided by the FSU, the CPS seems determined to prosecute Martin. In Hamit’s case, they instructed one of the most expensive KCs in the country to convince judges that Quran burning was illegal — and the CPS succeeded in getting a conviction against Hamit before we got it overturned. So we need to be prepared to fight for Martin and others.
Martin’s trial is listed at Manchester Crown Court for 13th-15th of November 2027. We may be successful in getting the case dismissed, but we need your help.
We don’t know for sure why so many Quran burners have been arrested in the last year. But we do know that Keir Starmer has been ambivalent about free speech — and Islam — in the past. He and his ministers seem determined to bring back a blasphemy law via the back door — a law that criminalises breaching Islamic blasphemy codes, but not Christian ones.
Will you join us to send Starmer a message that we won’t stand for this? As well as fighting for Martin, we are helping other individuals who've found themselves on the wrong side of the law for expressing concerns about Islam and Islamists. Anything you donate will help us to fight these cases too.
We can win this fight, but only if we stand together. The enemies of free speech hunt in packs. We need to band together to defend it.
Donations to this appeal will be received and administered as part of the Free Speech Union’s Legal Defence Fund. The Fund exists solely to support legal advice and litigation on behalf of FSU members in free speech cases and the FSU itself when it brings free speech cases in its own name. Contributions are pooled and applied by the FSU to support current and future cases involving our members’ speech rights, including the case featured here. No part of any donation will be used for the Free Speech Union’s general operating expenses or staff costs.
