Church Silent as Sikhs Block UK’s Blasphemy Bill Criminalizing Free Speech About Islam
Proposed legislation also threatens Christian evangelism to Muslims.
Britain’s Sikh community is temporarily blocking the progress of a blasphemy law that will criminalize criticism of Islam, even as Catholic bishops demonstrate tacit support for the legislation by equating Islamophobia to racism.
The Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO), representing Britain’s 500,000 Sikhs, has expressed “grave concerns” over a proposed law United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer is promoting that aims to define “Islamophobia.”
“Adoption of this contested definition into law would have serious implications on free speech, not least the ability to discuss historical truths,” the NSO stated in a Sept. 5 letter to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.
According to the Sikhs, the legislation is “a devious attempt at historical revisionism” since it would prohibit stating that, historically, Muslims have spread Islam “by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule.” (For detailed historical — and current — accounts of this fact, please read anything The Stream has published by contributing editor Raymond Ibrahim.) Islam prescribes the death penalty for those who insult or mock the religion’s founder.
Cancelling Sikh History
“Seminal moments in Sikh history will be censored and considered ‘racist,’ like the martyrdom of our ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, or fifth Guru, Arjan,” the letter warns, arguing that the bill’s definition of “Islamophobia” as a form of “racism” is “deeply flawed.”
Tegh Bahadur was executed on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1675 for refusing to convert to Islam. Guru Arjan Dev was executed by the Mughal emperor Jehangir for rejecting Islam after he was accused of supporting a rebellion under Khusrau Mirza, the emperor’s son.
The Guru was made to sit on a burning hot sheet while boiling hot sand was poured over his body. The torture continued for five days, after which Arjan Dev was drowned in a river.
“Images of Sikh martyrs are displayed in some gurdwaras across the UK,” the Sikhs noted. “Many of these would be deemed ‘Islamophobic’ — equated to ‘racism’ and potentially subject to criminal complaint.”
Religion of the Sword
“Islam did indeed spread ‘by the sword,’ and the subjugation of minority groups under Islamic rule continues to this day,” the Sikhs wrote, citing the recent ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan and the massacre of Yazidis by Islamic State.
The letter also referred to the Anglican archbishop of Nigeria, Dr. Henry Ndukuba, labeling the Islamic persecution of Christians in his country a “genocide in slow motion” and detailing the “appalling treatment and persecution of minority faiths in Bangladesh and Pakistan.”
“If the government chooses to incorporate this definition into law, then discussing the history of the Indian subcontinent, and the persecution of religious minorities across the world today, in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria will be absurdly equated to ‘racism,’” the NSO warned.
Tim Dieppe, head of public policy at Christian Concern, told The Stream his organization “is working with the Network of Sikh Organisations, the Free Speech Union, and the National Secular Society to resist the adoption of the APPG definition of Islamophobia.”
Blasphemy Laws Threaten Christians
“Sadly there are not many other Christian organizations willing to speak up about the threat to freedom of speech posed by a legal definition of Islamophobia,” said Dieppe, an expert on Islam who has written extensively on the dangers of the proposed legislation. “Yet Christians should be alert to the fact that Islamic blasphemy laws are a key factor in the persecution of Christians in various countries around the world. Christians will be amongst the first targets of any Islamic blasphemy law. They should therefore be the first to speak out against the dangers of bringing in any such law.”
Meanwhile, in a Sept. 19 letter, Lord Khan of Burnley, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Faith, Communities and Resettlement, agreed that the government’s definition of Islamophobia “is not in line with the Equality Act 2010, which defines race in terms of colour, nationality, and national or ethnic origins.”
“A person who experiences Islamophobia from their employer or when accessing goods and services may be able to bring a case of religious discrimination or harassment to an employment tribunal or other civil court,” he wrote.
Government Bows to Sikhs
The minister went on to assure the Sikh community that “freedom of speech and the freedom to discuss religion are incredibly important” and that “the Government’s approach to tackling religious hatred would never inhibit the lawful right to freedom of expression.”
Dieppe said Khan has made “a very significant concession, since the government cannot now adopt a definition of Islamophobia which they have stated is in conflict with the Equality Act 2010.”
Rather, the government’s plans to advance the contested definition of Islamophobia into law “have finally hit the buffers” since “no government will adopt a definition which is recognized to conflict with the Equality Act 2010.”
In his many writings, Dieppe has argued that “anti-Muslim” is a much clearer term to use in any legislation since “any definition of ‘Islamophobia’ is likely to conflate attitudes towards Muslims as individuals with attitudes towards Islam the religion.”
“Criticism of the religion must be allowed if our society is to retain free speech in relation to Islam,” he wrote. “It is better, therefore, not to define ‘Islamophobia’ at all, but instead to use the term ‘anti-Muslim,’ which makes clear that it is directed against Muslims rather than against the religion.”
Atheists Oppose Blasphemy Law
Atheist Richard Dawkins has joined forces with those protesting the blasphemy law. The Oxford evolutionary biologist wrote the foreword to Dieppe’s March 2024 report, Banning Islamophobia: Blasphemy Law by the Backdoor.
Dawkins points out that a religion is something you can convert to or opt out of, but race is an immutable characteristic of a person.
“The fact that you can’t leave your race means that, if Islam is indeed a race, apostasy is literally impossible,” Dawkins explains. “Yet apostasy has to be possible in Islam, or it couldn’t be punishable by death. So the statement that Islamophobia is a form of racism is more than just incorrect. It contradicts a fundamental, and incidentally obnoxious, tenet of Islam.”
While atheists and secularists like Dawkins, gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, feminist activist Pragna Patel, and British-Iranian secularist activist Maryam Namazie strongly oppose introducing a blasphemy law, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) has equated Islamophobia and racism in public statements.
Bad Call on the Church’s Part
In 2020, Bishop Paul McAleenan, the CBCEW’s lead bishop for migrants and refugees, issued a statement calling Catholics in Britain to “oppose racism in all its manifestations.” McAleenan defined “Islamophobia” as one of the “different forms” of racism.
Earlier, Bishop John Arnold of the Diocese of Salford said that Catholic schools would seek to combat “Islamophobia” as a way to help Muslims integrate into British society.
In a paper titled “A Catholic Approach to Islamophobia,” Xavierian missionary Fr. Carl Chudy describes Islamophobia as one of the “western epistemic racisms.”
“Within a long history of Europe’s colonization in the world and post-colonization that clung to western hegemonic thinking, epistemic racism leads to the orientalization of Islam,” Chudy writes.
Pope’s Tacit Support for Muslim Blasphemy Law
In 2015, after three jihadis massacred 17 people in Paris in response to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, Pope Francis appeared to endorse a blasphemy law protecting Islam from criticism.
Referring to Alberto Gasparri, who organizes the pontiff’s trips and was standing by his side, Francis said: “If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch.
“It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”
In October 2020, Pope Francis’ Muslim dialogue partner, Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb, demanded an international law banning criticizing or insulting Islam. The next day, jihadis killed three Catholics in Nice’s Notre-Dame Basilica.
Al-Tayyeb, who signed the Abu Dhabi Human Fraternity pact with Pope Francis, said the re-publication of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of Muhammad were “an explicit act of hostility” against Islam and its prophet.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.