A Labour minister has insisted the Government could overrule the new definition of Islamophobia if it risked free speech and legitimate criticism of the religion.
Ministers have initiated work on an official definition of Islamophobia following a surge in hate crimes against Muslims after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7 2023.
Plans to come up with a description for the ‘unacceptable treatment, prejudice and discrimination against Muslims’ were put forward by the former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.
But concerns have mounted that it would lead to Muslims being given protections beyond those afforded to other religions.
Steve Reed, the Communities Secretary, has now said he is willing to overrule the new definition if it would restrict free speech and threaten legitimate criticism of Islam.
He told the Telegraph: ‘We haven’t got a definition to introduce yet. There’s a group working on it and we’ll have to look at what they propose. But at the front of my mind in taking that decision will be I will defend free speech.’
‘I’m not going to bring in blasphemy laws by the back door,’ he said, adding that ‘people don’t have a right not to be offended’.
Former Tory Attorney General Dominic Grieve is leading work on a new definition, while a 2018 definition of Islamophobia which Labour adopted has been criticised for being too vague and having the potential to shut down valid discourse.
Steve Reed, the Communities Secretary, has now said he is willing to overrule the new definition if it would restrict free speech and threaten legitimate criticism of Islam
The government have initiated work on an official definition of Islamophobia following a surge in hate crimes against Muslims after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7
It defines Islamophobia as ‘a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’.
Meanwhile Labour signed up to a definition of Islamophobia while in opposition which suggests the term ‘Asian grooming gangs’ is racist.
Campaigners say that creating an official definition risks ‘two-tier’ enforcement by police, while top lawyers have said it could be used to rewrite harassment and hate crime laws.
Tom Cross KC, a member of a panel that acts for the Attorney General, warned Labour’s official definition of Islamophobia could deter police from investigating Muslim offenders.
It risks diluting current legislation which allows those accused of making offensive comments to argue their remarks were ‘reasonable’, he suggested.
Labour’s plan to introduce an official definition of Islamophobia could also hand a ‘significant new weapon’ to a Muslim group which aims to influence media reporting of the religion, a new report has warned.
A study by the think-tank Policy Exchange accused the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) of making repeated, ill-conceived complaints about the way Islam is covered in the media.
The report set out how CfMM ‘pressurises journalists to downplay or ignore Islamist extremism, overwhelmingly the greatest terror threat to the UK’.
‘It tells journalists they should never use the terms ‘Islamism’, ‘Islamic extremism’ or ‘Muslim extremism’ at all.
‘It attacks journalists for describing terror groups, including Hamas, as Islamist,’ the report said.
It concluded the organisation, which is part of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), ‘should not be engaged with or taken at face value by journalists, regulators or anyone else’.
The MCB itself has been boycotted by successive governments since 2009.
