Lords defeat for Blunkett on religious incitement
by Andy McSmith
Weekly Telegraph (12.12.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (12.12.2001) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Inciting religious hatred should not be a crime, the House of Lords decided last night in another defeat for the Government over clauses in its anti-terrorism Bill.
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is now expected to use Labour's huge majority in the Commons later in the week to overrule the peers in this test of wills.
The proposal to criminalise incitement to religious hatred was defeated by 240-141 in the Lords - the eighth defeat the Government had suffered over the Bill, which Mr Blunkett wants to have on the statute book by Christmas. It was closely followed by yet another reverse, when the Lords decided by 200-128 that even those parts of the Bill that they have not thrown out should be in force for only a year. The Lords are proposing that, like the old Prevention of Terrorism Act, the Bill should have to be renewed annually.
Opposition has come from a coalition of Tories, Liberal Democrats and Labour rebels. The rebel peers have had the backing of distinguished independents, including former law lords.
Mr Blunkett averted another possible defeat by backing down on one of the Bill's most unpopular provisions. He had proposed to give himself the power to introduce European rules on a range of crime and justice matters without putting legislation through Parliament.
If that had gone ahead, a simple order from the Home Secretary could have made European arrest warrants enforceable in Britain. Faced with united opposition, Mr Blunkett agreed to make the power applicable only to the fight against terrorism, and only until June 2005. Lord Strathclyde, Tory leader in the Lords, said: "Hasty law is often bad law. Hasty law touching on freedom of belief is particularly risky.
"It was a gross misjudgment to have buried these important, non-emergency issues, unrelated to terrorism, in an emergency Bill that should focus on terrorism."
Simon Hughes, the Lib-Dem home affairs spokesman, said he did not expect his party's peers to change their minds "even under pressure".
Blunkett to drop religious hatred law from terrorism Bill
by Joe Murphy
World Religion News Service (25.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (26.11.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - David Blunkett is preparing to drop planned laws against inciting religious hatred in a major concession to critics tomorrow.
With the controversial measure facing a likely defeat if it goes to the Lords, the Home Secretary wants to focus his energies on defending the rest of his emergency anti-terror legislation.
Mr Blunkett will "take the temperature" among Labour backbenchers when the Bill goes before the Commons again tomorrow and has signalled in advance that he is prepared to drop the clause on religious hatred.
The Bill is being targeted by Tory and Liberal Democrats for a vote in the Lords. A few Labour rebels oppose it on the grounds that it could inhibit free speech.
In its current form, the Bill would make it a criminal offence to use language likely to incite hatred or violence against religious communities, with a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment.
It followed attempts by extremists to stir up feelings against Muslims after the September 11 atrocities. Critics say the law would be unworkable because it requires a subjective test and that it would create a grey area over what is or is not acceptable criticism of religious practices.
A Home Office insider said: "It is not the most important part of the Bill and we can live without it. David Blunkett will listen to what Labour MPs say on Monday and is prepared to drop it if that is their wish."
The Government will now concentrate on defending the core parts of the Bill, including powers to detain foreign terrorist suspects without a formal trial. Ministers say MPs do not realise that anyone detained can appeal to a closed court headed by a High Court judge.
Blasphemy law to be scrapped soon
by Alan Travis
The Guardian (15.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (19.11.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A section of Sikhs and Hindus in the UK are David Blunkett last night announced his personal support for the scrapping of Britain's ancient blasphemy law. The home secretary signalled his backing before MPs, while defending his new law against inciting religious hatred.
Although he has refused to respond to calls led by the former Labour cabinet minister Frank Dobson to include the move in his anti-terrorism bill, this announcement means it is likely to happen soon.
"This particular provision has not been used for a very long time. It's my own view that there will come a time when it will be appropriate for the blasphemy law to find its place in history," Mr Blunkett told the Commons human rights committee last night.
The last prosecution in Britain for blasphemy was heard at the Old Bailey in 1976 when a private action by Mary Whitehouse succeeded in securing the conviction of Denis Lemon, the editor of Gay News. His magazine published a poem on the sexual love that a Roman centurion felt for Christ on the cross.
An attempt to prosecute the author Salman Rushdie under the same law for his book Satanic Verses failed when the high court ruled that only Christianity, and not other religions, were covered by the ancient law. Mr Blunkett insisted last night that the new proposal to ban incitement to religious hatred would not have caught Mr Rushdie's controversial novel.
The home secretary said that Satanic Verses had not been intended, nor was likely, to stir religious hatred which would then lead to public disorder. He agreed that many Muslims regarded the novelist's book as demeaning to their religion. But he said that would not be sufficient for it to be prosecuted under the new law.
Home Office ministers considered demands to include their repeal of the blasphemy law in the new anti-terrorism bill, but rejected it saying it was outside the scope of the new legislation.
More than 40% of Protestant churchgoers in England and Wales are retired, finds a survey among the main Christian denominations. Based on questionnaires completed last April by 100,000 churchgoers aged 15 upwards, and excluding Roman Catholics, the survey shows that the highest proportion of people going to church are aged around 70. The Church Information for Mission researchers suggested that for every five parishioners attending church weekly, a further three or four probably went monthly. "Forecasts tell us that the country is ageing; it seems the church is leading the way," says the report.
UK Hindus, Sikhs turning to ultra right party: BNP
The Times of India (09.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (09.11.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A section of Sikhs and Hindus in the UK are turning to the right extreme British National Party to counter the "threat" posed by Muslims to their communities.
A coalition of community groups is meeting Nick Griffin, the BNP chairman, to discuss their concerns and more meetings are planned in the next few weeks, a spokesman of the groups said on Thursday.
They are worried about an increase in Muslim activity in their communities and attempts to convert young women to Islam.
Ammo Singh, from Southall, West London, the spokesman said: "It may seem an odd alliance, but Nick Griffin understands the problems we face and has a high regard for Sikhs.
"Our elders are not listening to us and we are fed up with watching our communities being wrecked while nothing is done."
Singh's group, consisting of community leaders from around the country, contacted Griffin after he attacked the IA or putting Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims under the banner of Asians.
They run the risk of upsetting elders within their communities who have shunned any attempts to work with the BNP, which is conducting a "war against Islam" to exploit ill-feeling towards Muslims.
Singh denied that dealing with the BNP would destroy any hope of healing the rift with Muslims.
"Bridges have already been burnt and when you see your sister or daughter being targeted and harassed by Muslims you have to do something," he said.
Last month, The Daily Telegraph highlighted a letter being distributed among young Muslims across Britain urging them to befriend Sikh and Hindu girls with the aim of converting them to Islam.
The letter also says Islam "is the only way of life and the so-called religions are animalistic."
The letter is being investigated by the home office for inciting racial hatred.
Preacher puts his life at risk to convert British Muslims
by Victoria Combe
Electronic Telegraph (10.04.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (23.04.2001)- Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A preacher from Iran has begun a campaign to convert Muslims in Britain to Christianity.
The 43-year-old evangelist was forced to leave Teheran because of threats to his life after he began preaching to Muslims about Jesus Christ. He uses a false name for security reasons and preaches in Midlands hotels to Muslims, many of Iranian origin.
He does this knowing that in Iran and some other Muslim countries attempting such conversions is a deadly offence. In this country he is free to approach any person of any faith, but is aware that this could provoke reprisals. He contacted The Telegraph via the Evangelical Alliance, a London-based umbrella organisation, which arranged a meeting on neutral ground. He insisted that his face was not photographed.
Mohammed, as he is known, said: "If you are a Muslim and you change your faith in Iran they are allowed to kill you. You are unclean. It does not happen in practice, but the provision is there. The extremists believe that if they kill me or Salman Rushdie they will go to paradise. The threat is everywhere."
Determined not to be intimidated, Mohammed has begun broadcasting Bible lessons in Farsi on the radio which are transmitted to Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikstan. In Britain he has a following of a few hundred Muslim converts and is seeking Farsi-speaking disciples to help him look after his growing flock. His influence is spreading through northern Europe as well. He held a conference in Holland and 147 Muslims came. More than 90 became Christian during the week.
Sects school funding warning
Mr Smith expressed concern over "powerful" sects
BBCNews (10.04.2001) HRWF International Secretariat (23.04.2001)- Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - "Fringe" religious groups could be allowed to set up their own state-funded schools under planned reforms to the secondary school sector, a teachers' union warned. Incentives for more single-faith schools, announced by the government earlier this year, could "throw up some thorny issues" over which religious groups should qualify for state support, says the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
Who is to decide between a mainstream non-Christian faith which is entitled to be considered and a heavily-bankrolled fringe religion?
Peter Smith, ATL General Secretary, told delegates at the union's annual conference in Torquay that plans in the government's Green Paper on secondary education needed careful thought before they were passed in legislation.
While it was right that state funding for schools was being extended beyond the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths, he warned of arguments ahead over whether religious groups such as the Moonies or Scientologists should be subsidised by the state.
"The intellectual argument in favour of extending the provision of voluntary-aided schools to other faiths is unanswerable," Mr Smith said.
"The issue on which we will really have to concentrate is will the Green Paper proposals open the way for financially powerful cults such as the Scientologists or the Moonies to apply for public funding?
"Who is to decide between a mainstream non-Christian faith which is entitled to be considered and a heavily-bankrolled fringe religion?"
'Insulting'
But a senior government source dismissed Mr Smith's comments as offensive to the millions of parents who sent - or wanted to send - their children to church and other faith schools.
"The supposed threat he's talking about doesn't exist - there is no more chance of a Scientology or Moonie school being established now or in the future than there was in 1944," the source said.
At present, along with Anglican, Roman Catholic and Jewish schools, there are state-funded Islamic, Sikh and Greek Orthodox schools.
The government, in its proposed overhaul of the secondary school system, has called for more schools affiliated to religions, as they have proved more successful than their mainstream counterparts.
This increase in diversity was proposed in February alongside plans to expand the number of specialist schools.
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