 Britain’s racial and religious hatred laws may need reform after a court cleared a far-right leader for the second time this year over a speech in which he called Islam a “wicked, vicious faith”, ministers said. Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, was found not guilty on Friday of inciting racial hatred during secretly filmed speeches in 2004.
| “If you say Islam is wicked and evil and there is no consequence from that whatsoever, what is being said to young Muslim people in this country is that we ... are anti-Islam.” |
Two senior ministers said the comments had upset most Britons and British Muslims needed reassurance that the laws would protect them. “Any preaching of religious or racial hatred will offend mainstream opinion in this country and I think we have got to do whatever we can to root it out,” the Chancellor (Finance Minister) Gordon Brown told the BBC. “If that means that we have to look at the laws again, I think we will have to do so.” Constitutional Affairs Secretary Charles Falconer said the country had to show it would not tolerate attacks on Islam. “If you say Islam is wicked and evil and there is no consequence from that whatsoever, what is being said to young Muslim people in this country is that we ... are anti-Islam,” he told the BBC.
Of BritainÂ’s 60 million people, some 1.6 million are Muslims. |