Starmer’s ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ crackdown will pour fuel on the fire
In a liberal democracy, religions are not above scrutiny. They never have been. Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, secularism, liberalism, and the new political religion of woke-ism – all are routinely criticised, debated, mocked and challenged. Islam cannot be exempted from this basic principle without abandoning free expression altogether. Yet that is precisely the direction of travel in the UK.
If we abandon the principle that ideas, including religious ideas, must be open to challenge, we abandon something far more valuable than we realise. We abandon the foundations of a free society itself. And once that ground is lost, it is rarely regained.
Image: Bosch Fawstin