Blasphemy law..... in Britain ? protecting who ?

[Raguraman]

Hare Krishna,

 

House of Lords Considers Proposals to Change Blasphemy Law

Religion News Service

 

LONDON, ENGLAND, June 10, 2003: Any attempt to change the current law

on blasphemy to provide protection for all religions "is likely to run

into profound controversy," according to the chairman of a House of

Lords committee studying the issue. The present law on blasphemy

protects only the Church of England. Laws on race relations have the

effect of protecting Jews and Sikhs from incitement to religious hatred

but not other religious groups because they are not seen as having a

common ethnic origin. Britain's Muslim community -- which makes up

three percent of the population -- "feels itself the least protected

from hatred and most exposed to hostile attack, both verbal and

physical," the committee said in its report. "The diversity of the

United Kingdom's population now makes it imperative that, if there is

to be legal protection for faiths, it must embrace all faiths," the

committee stated. But, while the 12-member committee believed there

should be "a degree of protection of faith," there was no consensus on

the precise form such protection might take.