Labour would outlaw Islamophobia, says Miliband in an exclusive interview

I know there is a lot going on in the US, but this is happening right now in the UK. Ed Miliband appears to be running for office with this as one of his standpoints, that Islamophobia will be illegal and punishable as a hate crime.

“We are going to make it an aggravated crime. We are going to make sure it is marked on people’s records with the police to make sure they root out Islamophobia as a hate crime,” Miliband told the Editor of The Muslim News, Ahmed J Versi in a wide ranging exclusive interview.

“We are going to change the law on this so we make it absolutely clear of our abhorrence of hate crime and Islamophobia. It will be the first time that the police will record Islamophobic attacks right across the country,” he said.

Labour Party Manifesto pledged to take a “zero-tolerance approach to hate crime” regarding the growth of Islamophobia as well as anti-Semitism. “We will challenge prejudice before it grows, whether in schools, universities or on social media. And we will strengthen the law on disability, homophobic, and transphobic hate crime,” it said.

Source

Now, Douglas Murray from "The Spectator" has an opinion on that, simply because the term Islamophobia is such a generic term:

1 ) If Ed Miliband does become Prime Minister and chooses to make ‘Islamophobia’ illegal would he mind letting us know what he thinks ‘Islamophobia’ is? After all a ‘phobia’ is an irrational fear. The Charlie Hebdo staff were often called ‘Islamophobes’ before (and after) two Islamists went into their magazine’s office and shot most of them in the head. If there is such a thing as ‘Islamophobia’ and it is indeed an ‘irrational’ fear, would Ed mind telling us whether it was ‘rational’ or ‘irrational’ of the Charlie Hebdo staff to be fearful of elements of Islam? An answer before 7 May would be helpful.

2) I cannot help noticing that some actual, serious ‘hate-speech’ occurred while Labour were last in power, yet nothing seemed to have been done. Consider this speech by Michael Adebolajo at a ‘Unite Against Fascism’ rally in 2009. What else was Adebolajo doing here other than inciting anti-non-Muslim violence and prejudice? Of course Michael Adebolajo actually followed words with deeds and went on to behead Drummer Lee Rigby. Where were the hate-speech laws that day?

3) And finally, I hate to grandstand, but I suppose I should point out that if Ed Miliband were to become Prime Minister and were to decide to make what people call ‘Islamophobia’ illegal then I’m very happy to test the law straight away. Indeed I will immediately put on a gathering of academics, writers, Quranic-scholars and philosophers – Muslim and non-Muslim – to discuss Islam. It is possible that some of those gathered may disagree with the foundational claims of Islam. I, for instance, may repeat my belief – not being a Muslim – that it is highly unlikely that the Quran was ‘dictated’ by God. This is not only my belief. It is also the belief of Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, Christians (some Anglican priests excepted), atheists and ex-Muslims, to name only a few minority groups. And so the problem Prime Minister Ed will find is that:

a) What I am saying is true.
b) The ‘Islamophobia’ industry will continue to describe this truth as ‘Islamophobia’.
c) Ed will have made ‘Islamophobia’ illegal.
d) Ed will have made the truth illegal.

This will be a problem, won’t it?

Source

I agree with Mr. Murray on this, to outlaw Islamophobia is to make a huge sweeping generalization that has the potential to outlaw any kind of discussion or criticism of Islam itself. Debate and discussion, showing our disgust with acts of violence brought to all of us by Islam, beheading and the killing of homosexuals and child marriages and the like, should never be outlawed.

I as an ex-Muslim, have many criticisms myself, and to me, this whole law is simply way to general. And what of the hate speech by Muslims themselves? The wahabbis and others have no problems with their own hate speech.. why allow one thing, and not the other?

What say you ATS?

Sounds about right...

Don't say anything to offend the ethnic minorities (if they are minorities still) while allowing the extremists to say anything and be protected in the process.

This country's broken...

a reply to: DAZ21

Don't say anything to offend the ethnic minorities

There is not such ethnic group known as " Islam"

I always thought it was a religion.

a reply to: OpinionatedB

I agree, and think it is absolutely ridiculous.
Ed Millipede is just trying to attract votes from the 5% of the UK population who are Muslims in my opinion.
"Irrational fear of Islam" to become a crime? Haha, yes ridiculous.
If any UK government wishes to bring in a law specifically focusing on those who treat people badly based solely on their religion though, I'd support it as a peace loving atheist.

a reply to: alldaylong

Yea that's what I used to believe too...

a reply to: DAZ21
To be fair though, there are a lot of people who hate Muslims, just for being Muslims.
I respect the right of anyone to hate anyone else, but if their actions such as physical attack are motivated by such hatred then I have no problem with it being recorded on their police/conviction record.

Hope they never outlaw Christiaphobia. I dislike Christianity as a whole. I do know some good Christians, but the religion is wacked. I am a Christiaphobe.

a reply to: DAZ21

Not all members of Britain's ethnic groups are Muslim.

Many from The Middle & Far East and Indian Sub Continent are Christian, Hindu, Sikh etc. So i don't think it's a question of not " offending the ethnic minorities " It's more a question of not labeling all Muslims as possible terrorists.

We don't need another " Spanish Inquisition "

It's already a crime...

As is anti-semitism & homophobia.



We ban people from our country who incite hatred. Rightly so.

Keep the Phelps family, Pamela Geller and the StormFront owners in your country and you deal with them.



This is in reference to adding hate crime to the criminal record, such as destruction of Synagogues & Mosques or violent acts of hatred.




People can still say what they want as long as they don't advise others to be violent.



Carry on.

a reply to: OpinionatedB

Labour have always had a bonner for control and social programs and war. It was Blairs party after all.


This little troll wont win dont worry. Im certainly not voteing for Millipede

originally posted by: DAZ21
Sounds about right...

Don't say anything to offend the ethnic minorities (if they are minorities still) while allowing the extremists to say anything and be protected in the process.

This country's broken...

Tell that to Abu Hamza...

Oh wait...

Never mind.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Yea and look how long that process took.

originally posted by: DAZ21
a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Yea and look how long that process took.

Did take a while...

Better late than never though. Sometimes.

originally posted by: grainofsand
a reply to: OpinionatedB

I agree, and think it is absolutely ridiculous.
Ed Millipede is just trying to attract votes from the 5% of the UK population who are Muslims in my opinion.
"Irrational fear of Islam" to become a crime? Haha, yes ridiculous.
If any UK government wishes to bring in a law specifically focusing on those who treat people badly based solely on their religion though, I'd support it as a peace loving atheist.

If I lived there I know I would fight against that.. the whole thing seems way over generalized.. I would think any physical attack on a person would already be a crime..

so now it sounds as if they want to convict thought crimes!

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: OpinionatedB

Labour have always had a bonner for control and social programs and war. It was Blairs party after all.


This little troll wont win dont worry. Im certainly not voteing for Millipede

Well I hope all of you are in that mind set.. it seems your country is going in a fairly fascist direction from the sounds of things..

originally posted by: OpinionatedB
I would think any physical attack on a person would already be a crime..

so now it sounds as if they want to convict thought crimes!

Election hot air is all I think it is.

Regarding recording of specific hate inspired crimes on a criminal record though, we already do that for race, disability, and sexuality crimes etc.
I support it only because it shows a pattern of behaviour, so for example, say the courts see that someone has 5 previous convictions for beating only gay men up then it shows a hateful (and possibly premeditated) pattern which the judge/magistrate can take into account while deciding punishment.
Such information would be important to me if I was passing judgement.

a reply to: OpinionatedB

What a load of bllcks!

Mr. Milliband is obviously pandering to the 'Muslim' voters (Not that he needed to). The 'Labour' Party get paid from 'Muslims' to keep them coming here.

'Voting for 'Labour' is a vote for eventual 'Muslim' Countrol!!

Don't do it.

'Conservatives' is the best bet because if one votes 'UKIP', they vote 'Labour' back in and look what happened under their control before..

I see more votes for UKIP if this keeps up... both 'Conservatives' and 'Labour' keep shooting themselves in the foot.

a reply to: OpinionatedB

I'm not ATS, but what I say is...where's this guy's perspective? I haven't seen any reports of cities on fire because of Islamaphobia. I haven't seen video's of people weeping and wailing in the streets of London, Liverpool, Manchester, etc. because they've been criticized for being Muslim. No reports whatsoever have I seen of Imams self-immolating in the streets in protest of Islamaphobic behaviors.

I haven't seen a single report of an Islamic kid committing suicide because of being bullied on social media by their peers in local UK schools.

So back at you OP. Here's a couple of questions for you.
1)...do you have "Free Speech Rights" in the UK?
2)...aren't there significantly more pressing problems in the UK besides Islamaphobia?

Last time I checked, it seemed to me that the UK economy wasn't all that hot. I can't believe all the potholes have been fixed. Really....there's got to be more important things for this clown to be addressing.

a reply to: OpinionatedB

Uh? What?

Since when has personal phobias been agenda for government? Normally governments are the source for such phobias, not vice versa.

Then again, elections are there to assure, no such donkey gets elected.