Above: the London Central Mosque (also known as the Regent’s Park Mosque) is an Islamic place of worship located on the edge of Regent’s Park in central London.
I strongly recommend that readers should peruse the Islamophobia policy of the Labour Party: https://labour.org.uk/resources/labours-islamophobia-policy/
That Keir Jong Starmer will introduce a Bill to criminalise “Islamophobia” is a racing certainty.
What specific clauses that Bill contains is something about which we will have to wait and see.
Starmer’s predicament is that the more detailed and prescriptive, the greater the number of arrests, convictions and offenders created. Depending on how prescriptive, it could amount to a huge number.
For instance, were clause c of section 10 of Labour’s Code of Conduct to be placed as offences on the Statute book it would be very much a “worst case scenario” – see below:
10. In all cases, whether conduct is discriminatory must be assessed according to the particular context, facts and circumstances at hand. When considering allegations of Islamophobia, the Labour Party is advised to take into account the following sorts of treatment that are likely to amount to prejudice or hostility based on the protected characteristic of Islam or ethnic or national origins:
a. Inciting by word or deed hatred or violence against Muslims, including calling for or justifying actual or threatened harm towards Muslims.
b. Engaging in derogatory or dehumanising stereotypes about Muslims, for example, by suggesting that Muslims in general have a particular propensity to commit, or to support, acts of terrorism; or that individuals who are Muslim are necessarily socially or politically illiberal or regressive; or that Muslims have particular physical characteristics, names, dress or moral or ethical values; or that Muslims have a propensity for violence or are incapable of living peacefully in a democratic society; or that is not used to those of other backgrounds.
c. Suggesting that Muslims, individually or as a group in British society, pose a threat to British or European society, civilisation or values, for example, by claiming that Muslims are a demographic threat to British people, by claiming that Muslims are taking over British society or civic or political institutions through their presence in the same, or by catastrophising immigration from Muslim majority countries.
Clearly, if conduct described in clause c were criminalised the “Online Investigation Department” will be very busy for I feel that many people who hold such opinions might ignore the prohibition of their promulgation!