Appeal hearing this week for man convicted for Quran-burning

On Thursday and Friday, a man who burned a Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in London and was found guilty of religiously motivated harassment, alarm, or distress by Westminster Magistrates’ Court, is due to appeal his case at Southwark Crown Court.

At the time of his conviction at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in June, the judge stated ‘I do not find that this prosecution is an attempt to bring back and expand blasphemy law’ and said that burning a religious book, although offensive to some, is not necessarily disorderly. The judge did, however, find that the location of the burning and the man’s associated actions made it so. In addition, comments the man made in his police interview were prejudicial towards Muslims. As a result, the judge found that the defendant had a ‘deep-seated’ hatred of not just Islam but also its followers, and that it was not possible to separate the two.

The appeal will be overseen by Mr Justice Joel Bennathan, a High Court judge, at Southwark Crown Court on 9 and 10 October.

A Humanists UK spokesperson said:

‘We followed the previous trial closely and at the time of the judgment expressed our concerns that the defendant was found guilty of a religiously aggravated offence for prejudicial views that were expressed in a police interview after the incident, not during the incident itself. We warned that the judgment meant that the bar to successful prosecutions was set too low and that this could have a chilling effect on freedom of expression. We’re especially concerned how this could impact ex-Muslims, who may hold prejudicial views about their former community because of their experience, who may feel they are no longer able to express their non-religious beliefs for risk of prosecution.

‘We campaign for the fullest possible protection for freedom of expression in law limited only to protect against harm to others.’

Humanists UK successfully campaigned for the abolition of blasphemy laws in England and Wales in 2008, welcomed their repeal in Scotland last year, and continues to campaign for the end of blasphemy laws in Northern Ireland and around the world. 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.