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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, perhaps I could remind your Lordships of the time in the early 1990s during the height of the Rushdie affair when Muslims thought it right and proper to burn copies of his novel The Satanic Verses and effigies of Salman Rushdie himself. Where would such actions fall under the amendment? It suggests that the amendment needs greater definition. Of course we all deplore the desecration of the graves that we have heard about recently, but the amendment is still too broad. Another area that might come under its aegis, which again is contentious, and which has certainly been tested in the US, is flag burning. I remember going to great lengths, along with many other people—some of whom are in your Lordships’ House—to defend the burning of flags. It may be that we would fall on the wrong side of the law if the amendment were agreed to.