Man charged with crime after burning Quran in Manchester

A man has pleaded guilty to a charge of racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment or alarm in Manchester yesterday after footage of him burning a copy of the Quran was live-streamed on social media over the weekend.

At the time of his being charged, Greater Manchester Police named the defendant on social media. Humanists UK is seriously concerned that this endangers his long-term safety and has questioned whether this was necessary.

The defendant told officers he was demonstrating solidarity with Salwan Momika, who was murdered in Sweden on Wednesday ahead of the verdict in his criminal trial for burning four Qurans in separate incidents. The court also heard how the defendant suffered poor mental health following the death of his daughter in the war in Gaza.

In a statement to the UN last year, Humanists UK reminded states that blasphemy laws (such as those against damaging religious books) are not compatible with freedom of speech nor the UN Rabat Plan on hate crime. Countries with blasphemy laws typically see much more religious violence of this kind than countries without. Instead, the state has a duty to treat violence and violent threats with the utmost seriousness. Following Denmark’s decision to introduce a Quran-burning blasphemy law and similar calls made in the UK in 2024, Humanists UK received reassurances from Downing Street that no such laws would be introduced here.

A Humanists UK spokesperson said:

‘We don’t know all the facts and so can’t speak for the motives of those involved. But the destruction of a religious text, like any other form of “blasphemy”, should not in itself be a crime. No disrespect or damage to a “sacred” text can ever justify violence against a human being. The freedom of expression held by private individuals rightly includes forms of expression that others find distasteful or offensive, as long as no person is harmed.’

Humanists UK is concerned about the fact that Greater Manchester Police named the suspect, including on social media, given the long-lasting threat to his life that will predictably follow. This can be seen from the recent murder of Salwan Momika in Sweden, the beheading of Samuel Paty in France, a teacher in Batley still in hiding over the content of an RE lesson, and the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.

Humanists UK is calling for the UK Government to implement the recommendations of the Khan and Walney reviews in relation to blasphemy-motivated incitement to violence, and relevant laws and policies to be updated to account for the real risk of endangering human lives by publicly naming those accused of blasphemy.