A man who desecrated a copy of the Holy Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London was found guilty on Monday of committing a religiously aggravated public order offence, in a verdict critics said effectively reinstated an abolished blasphemy law.
Hamit Coskun, 50, was fined 240 pounds ($325) at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court after being convicted of being disorderly by shouting “F*** Islam” as he held aloft the burning book near the consulate in central London in February.
The lawyer for Coskun, whose father was Kurdish and his mother Armenian and who lived in central England, had argued that the prosecution amounted to an attempt to bring back a blasphemy law that was abolished in England in 2008.
Coskun had denied the charge and said on social media he was carrying out a protest against the Turkish government. While he was holding the book aloft, he was attacked by a man with a knife who kicked and spat at him.
“Burning a religious book, although offensive, to some is not necessarily disorderly,” said Judge John McGarva.
“What made his conduct disorderly was the timing and location of the conduct and that all this was accompanied by abusive language. There was no need for him to use the ‘F word’ and direct it towards Islam.”
He was motivated by “hostility towards members of a religious group, namely followers of Islam”, McGarva said.
“Your actions in burning the Quran where you did were highly provocative, and your actions were accompanied by bad language in some cases directed toward the religion and were motivated at least in part by hatred of followers of the religion,” said the judge.
State prosecutors insisted Coskun was not being prosecuted for burning the book.
“He is being prosecuted for his disorderly behaviour in public,” said Philip McGhee, for the Crown Prosecution Service.
The National Secular Society (NSS), which helped pay his legal fees, said the prosecution was “a significant blow to freedom of expression”, a sentiment echoed by the main opposition Conservative Party.
“Britain has no blasphemy laws. Yet this verdict creates one de facto,” the party posted on X.
