This is good news. From the Times:

Prosecutors were accused of trying to recreate blasphemy offences “by the back door” after a judge overturned the conviction of a man who burnt a copy of the Quran.

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, hailed the ruling that exonerated Hamit Coskun as a “victory for free speech”.

Coskun, 51, who was born in Turkey, was demonstrating outside his country’s consulate in London in February when he was said to have “briefly” lit a copy of the Islamic holy text. Magistrates convicted him in June of a religiously aggravated public order offence but he appealed to the crown court….

“We live in a liberal democracy,” the judge said. “One of the precious rights that affords us is to express our own views and read, hear and consider ideas without the state intervening to stop us doing so. The price we pay for that is having to allow others to exercise the same rights, even if that upsets, offends or shocks us.”

Now what about the man who attacked him with a knife, and got off scot free?

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One response to “A victory for free speech”

  1. […] He was the man who set fire to a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish consulate in London, and was then attacked by a Muslim man armed with a knife. He, Coskun, was found guilty of a “religiously aggravated public order offence” – in other words, blasphemy. No charges were ever brought against the man with the knife. The conviction was later overturned: […]

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