Britain's unofficial blasphemy law

Our spineless elites are increasingly afraid of standing up to religious fundamentalists

Dec 14, 2023

If you stand for public office, you should first make sure that you have a backbone. For it is almost certain that while serving as an elected representative you will at some point come up against vested interests and influential – sometimes menacing – forces intent on having their way when their cause doesn’t merit it. It is often at moments such as these that the true worth of a politician can be gauged.

That we have over recent years witnessed a decline in the number of MPs possessing a real moral fibre – those demonstrating a willingness to say what they truly believe and regardless of the political consequences – is surely undeniable. As I wrote on UnHerd some time ago, it seems that, for many among our current crop of parliamentarians, personal emoting has taken the place of political courage, with an inclination to shy away from – rather than confront head on – awkward or divisive debates.

One need only examine, by way of example, the regular spectacle of MPs getting into the most awful tangles when asked to define the word ‘woman’ or answer the question ‘Can a woman have a penis?’ Most know the truthful answers, of course, but they just aren’t willing to state it out of fear of inviting a backlash.

Which brings me to a post on X/Twitter a few days ago by Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary. Streeting represents a constituency – Ilford North – with a sizeable Muslim population and has been in the line of fire in recent weeks over his refusal to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The tensions culminated in a large protest outside Streeting’s constituency office.

In Ilford North, as in a number of other constituencies across the country, the Muslim vote could, come the general election, prove to be, if not decisive, then certainly significant. MPs in these constituencies know only too well that their response to events in the Middle East may determine whether or not they hold on to their seats and thus are increasingly keen to placate angry voices. It ultimately speaks to the rise of communal politics in our society – are we surprised, given our obsession with promoting multiculturalism at every opportunity? – and it’s something on which we need to keep a very close eye.

But I digress. In his post on X/Twitter, Streeting condemned a threatening letter that had been sent to a Muslim school in his constituency. The sender had threatened to ‘kill everyone’. It was a despicable act and, quite properly, the police are investigating.

Now, a cynic might suggest that Streeting’s intervention – he publicised the matter widely and urged the home secretary to tackle the ‘rise in Islamophobia’ – was designed to recover the ground he has lost locally over Gaza. Perhaps. But none of us can make a window into Streeting’s soul, and I am inclined to believe that he would very likely have adopted the same stance even if recent tensions between himself and Muslim constituents had not occurred.

Nonetheless, his comments did illustrate once again, albeit unintentionally, the general hypocrisy of politicians when it comes to threats of violence involving the Muslim community. When Muslims are the targets of such threats, politicians are, not unreasonably, very quick to speak out. And they usually do so in vociferous terms. ‘There can be no room for hate in our society,’ they will tell us. But when it is Muslims who are doing the threatening, these same politicians suddenly become very reticent.

I think, for example, of the school teacher in Batley, West Yorkshire, who remains in hiding – his career obviously destroyed – almost three years after receiving death threats from Muslim extremists for having innocently shown students an image of the prophet Mohammed during an RE lesson.

I think, too, of the autistic boy who stood accused of having ‘scuffed’ a copy of the Koran while at school in Wakefield and was forced with his family to flee his home and, as with the Batley teacher, go into hiding. The spectacle of the boy’s fearful mother later prostrating herself before members of a local mosque, while a weak-kneed police officer sat and indulged the hardliners rather than telling them where to get off, told us everything we need to know about where power on these matters currently lies.

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And let us not forget the protests against the cinema chain, Cineworld, after it decided to screen a film – The Lady of Heaven – which Muslim radicals averred was ‘blasphemous’. Needless to say, the company caved in, and the film was pulled.

Think back to when these incidents occurred. How many politicians did you hear speaking out in full-throated condemnation of the threats by the fundamentalists? How many threw their support behind the Batley teacher, Wakefield schoolboy or cinema chain? How many were willing to show personal courage by casting themselves as opponents of those who sought to subvert our country’s historical commitment to freedom of expression and calling for their punishment? Speaking for myself, I can recall no more than one or two doing these things. Most remained completely silent. Worse, some openly capitulated to the mob. The MP for Batley at the time, Tracey Brabin, was the most craven, stating: ‘The upset and offence this [the teacher’s actions] has caused is understandable, but it was also predictable. I am pleased that the school has recognised it was inappropriate and apologised for the offence caused.’

And it isn’t just MPs who are culpable. Media commentators, usually very quick to offer us their forthright opinions, were also largely missing in action when these events happened. The failure, too, of the teaching unions to stand up publicly for the Batley teacher and condemn the religious fundamentalists who had made his life hell will for ever be a mark of shame on them (I say that as a proud trade unionist, by the way).

In the end, these incidents prove again that a de facto blasphemy law exists in Britain – one that, uniquely, applies to every religion (and one religion in particular) except the established one. Few in public life say it openly, but we all know it’s true.

Our rights in the way of free speech, personal liberty and critical thinking are being slowly eroded as a consequence of the demands of religious zealots combined with the cowardice of our political and media classes. Appeasement has led to emboldenment. That much is incontestable.

I’m glad that so many in positions of authority and influence are swift to condemn acts and expressions of bigotry and intolerance towards Muslims. I just wish they had the courage to do the same when the bigotry and intolerance is coming from the opposite direction.

I appeared in my usual slot as a panellist on GB News’s Dewbs & Co. last week. The episode can be viewed here.