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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

I will certainly be brief. On Report on 11 July 2005, I said that I supported what the Government intended to do, but had certain reservations. To some extent, my reservations were being echoed by Rowan Atkinson and others who were saying that if the Bill were passed, it would be difficult to criticise religion. I believe that the Government should take that matter very seriously. I have no religion myself—I am virtually a lifelong non-believer—but it goes without saying that I believe in people’s right to practise, or not to practise, a religion. I certainly take the view that religion should be the subject of criticism. That applies to any religion, although it is mainly the Christian religion that is the subject of satire. There is no reason, as I said on 11 July, why Islam, or the Jewish, Hindu or Sikh religions should not face the same ridicule and criticism that the Christian religion has faced over the past 25 years or so. I am pleased with the Government’s supplementary provisions—I know that they will not satisfy the critics because, frankly, nothing will, given that they are largely opposed to the measure—which make it perfectly clear that someone is not guilty of an offence unless they are"““reckless as to whether religious hatred would be stirred up””." Moreover, the provisions state that"““a person is not guilty of an offence under this Part of intending to stir up religious hatred if he intends to stir up hatred against a religion, religious belief or religious practice””." To a large extent, the Government have tried to meet the criticism of those of us who were concerned that Rowan Atkinson had a valid point. He may not be satisfied, as critics are generally not satisfied, but the Government have tried to tackle concerns, and they should be congratulated. In our debate, as on previous occasions, the Government have repeatedly been asked to give examples. My hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright), for instance, wanted them to give examples of offences that are not covered by existing law and the Minister tried to explain the position. To return to the core issue, why are the Government introducing the legislation? The cynical, simplistic view, certainly of the Opposition, is that it is a tactic to attract Muslim votes. That may be a crude way of putting it, but I do not believe that is the case. Neither do I believe that Muslims will vote Labour simply because of the measure. There is no evidence in the past 40 years that people of Jewish origin or people who practise the Jewish religion said that they would vote Labour because of legislation on incitement to race hatred. Indeed, if we look at the Jewish vote, we can see that it turned to Labour when the lower-middle class and the middle class proper started to vote Labour in 1997. I simply do not believe that the Muslim population will say, ““Ah, the Government have passed a measure on the religious hatred. That’s a good reason to vote Labour.”” The Government are genuinely concerned, as has been pointed out by my hon. Friends today and on previous occasions, about people who are being victimised, spat on, looked on with contempt and spoken of in a certain way simply because they belong to the Muslim faith. That is the reason why they have acted, just as, more than 40 years ago, previous Labour Governments—not Conservative Governments—introduced the measures to which I referred and which were the subject of intense criticism and opposition by the Conservatives. Reference has been made to political correctness. If political correctness means in effect that people are protected in law against religious or racial abuse and so on, I am very much in favour of it. Whatever it has brought about—there are some distortions and exaggerations—it is better than the situation that existed before those laws were passed.