Islamic Blasphemy Law Now Effectively in Place in England
4th June 2025
campaigners warn that they have returned in all but name after a man who set fire to a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London was convicted on Monday of a racially aggravated public order offence.
Hamit Coskun—a Turkish political refugee—shouted “f**k Islam” and “Islam is religion of terrorism” as he held the burning book aloft in February and, after being found guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court of the offence, was fined £240 (€285) with a statutory surcharge of £96 (€114).
Free speech campaigners have been especially critical of the Crown Prosecution Service’s initial charge, accusing Coskun of acting with “intent to cause against the religious institution of Islam harassment, alarm or distress”—as though Islam itself were a person.