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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

The wisdom of my path will be demonstrated when I come to that precise point later, but I will come to it in a few moments, not immediately. The hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) gave us, in his own words, probably his shortest sermon ever. He said that it was his duty to defend our faith with the gifts that God has given us. I agree with that. With this Bill, we want to defend people of faith against whom hate is incited because of that faith. That is the aspiration behind the proposed offence. This is the third time that the Government have brought this measure to Parliament. As my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary made clear earlier, there are differences in the way in which it is being presented. First, it is a stand-alone Bill, not connected with other measures that may or may not be controversial. That will allow us to focus closely on what it contains and to conduct our scrutiny as we should. Secondly, the Bill comes at an early stage in this Parliament and fulfils a manifesto commitment. We are not running against the clock with this measure. Everyone understands that it was in the policy programme of the party that won the election and that that is why we intend to legislate. There are three specific reasons why we want this law on incitement to hatred on grounds of religious belief to be added to racial hatred. First, we believe that it is the right thing to do. We know that some would seek to turn people’s fears and frustrations into hatred of others purely on the grounds of their faith.