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In my view, existing hate crimes and anti-discrimination legislation is adequate. Adopting a definition of Islamophobia will not, of itself, change the law.
Recorded 29 April 2019. Transmitted 6 May 2019. Posted 11 May 2019
In November 2018, the All Party Parliamentary Group ("APPG")on British Muslims published a new definition of the word Islamophobia in its report "Islamophobia Defined: The inquiry into a working definition of Islamophobia."
Following this publication, there has been a concerted push by supporters of the APPG and others, primarily on the political left, to have the UK Government formally adopt the APPG's Islamophobia definition. On 9 December 2018 I signed an open letter opposing adoption.
I recently appeared on a 26-minute TV programme to discuss this issue. You can watch it below.
The programme was presented by David Foster. The panellists were:
When watching the programme below, please listen carefully to the arguments made by the two people proposing adoption of the definition.
What they fail to address is the issue that having the Government adopt the definition will, of itself, not change the law on hate crimes in any way.
In my view, what they are really seeking is an extension of the law on hate crimes to criminalise some activities which are presently lawful. However they do not make that point explicitly clear.
The points I make above are set out in detail in my piece "The word Islamophobia should be abandoned" and in the other pages linked from that one.
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