Batley row ‘shows how extremists are using blasphemy to attack free speech’ – The Telegraph

Mr Shawcross, the former chairman of the charity commission, also cited a Christian preacher who critiqued the Koran stabbed at Speakers Corner and the closure earlier this year of the Shia film, Lady of Heaven, about the daughter of Muhammed after protests from Muslims.

He said: The charge of blasphemy really does seem to be in danger of limiting free expression. The recent horrific attack on Salman Rushdie is something that is another example of the fact that we haven't come to grips with it.

Here in the UK, we've had a teacher go into hiding, a shopkeeper in Glasgow murdered, a Christian preacher knifed at Speaker's Corner, and a Shia film pulled from the cinemas at the demands of protesters mostly Muslim protesters.

Hosting a conversation with former minister Michael Gove and Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terror laws, he asked: What needs to be done about free expression in terms of our concerns about extremism and terrorism because some of these attackes were indeed terroristic?

How do we deal with the charge of blasphemy? And how do we stop it having a veto on free expression that it has?

Mr Shawcross warned that Britain was not pushing back strongly enough against those who exploited blasphemy to stifle free speech.

Mr Gove, who ran education, justice, environment, the Cabinet office and levelling up department as a minister, said attempts to restrict freedom of speech by invoking blasphemy for talking about the tender feelings of believers should not be indulged in a society like ours.

Although many people might have found the Lady of Heaven film genuinely offensive, he said you dont police artistic expression in that way.

He said people might regard Salman Rushdie as ungallant or rude to have written Satanic Verses that caused offence but he added: "Free speech means nothing if it doesn't give you the freedom to offend."

Mr Shawcross challenged him over whether the Government should take a more robust approach like Emmanuel Macron who gave a state funeral to the teacher beheaded for showing his class Muhammed cartoons.

He said: When a teacher in Batley showed his class, similar cartoons he was not killed, but Islamist protesters came to the school and terrorised him and the school. He has gone into hiding, his life irreparably changed. What can we do about this? Was Macron right to make such an example?

Mr Gove replied: Emmanuel Macron has been incredibly robust in calling out Islam. Anyone who has seen what he's said or knows the very clear distinctions that he's drawn, I think that's absolutely right to do.

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Batley row 'shows how extremists are using blasphemy to attack free speech' - The Telegraph