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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

The point made in Committee that still applies now is that it is not just a question of giving protection to white Muslims. There are many Muslims in many mosques, just as there are many Christians in many churches: people from many different racial backgrounds are represented. Somalis, Pakistanis, Kosovans, Indians, Bangladeshis, people from Saudi Arabia and from many other countries are represented in mosques in this country. The point of new schedule 1 is that it would enable those who wished to whip up hatred against any of those people in a particular mosque—as, indeed, in a particular church, which may have many different ethnic and racial groups present—to do so. It would provide the perfect excuse for someone to point to a mosque and say, ““Look, there are many different racial groups there and I am not, of course, whipping up hatred against any of those particular groups because—