[Name
Address 1
Address 2
Address 3]
Member of Parliament
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
[Date]
Dear Member of Parliament
Re: The Religious Offences Bill 2002
You are no doubt aware that Muslims do not enjoy the same protection against hate crimes in Britain as rightly enjoyed by other minority communities and some mono-ethnic faith communities, like Jews and Sikhs. The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill 2001, following the backlash against Muslims after 11th September, sought to address this anomaly, but was only partially successful. Consequently, Muslims—and indeed, most faith communities, including all Christian denominations—are still not protected against the offence of incitement of religious hatred.
In January this year, Lord Avebury introduced the above mentioned Bill in the House of Lords, where it sought to abolish several existing religious offences, most notably the offence of blasphemy, and create a new offence of incitement of religious hatred. The Bill seeks to redress a current lacuna in the law and provide greater protection for adherents of ALL faith communities.
Lord Avebury’s Bill is of particular importance to the British Muslim community for several reasons. Firstly, Muslims are regularly vilified in various sections of British society. This occasionally leads to indiscriminate harassment and violence against Muslims. Currently, although there is protection against those perpetrating such harassment and violence, there is no protection against those inciting such perpetrators. Secondly, the far right is currently mobilising support on a specifically Islamophobic agenda. The British National Party (BNP), for example, rallied support at the last general and local government elections with an explicitly anti-Muslim campaign, and continues this campaign just as vigorously on its web-page (please see attached materials). Grassroots support for the ideas proffered by the BNP and other far-right, neo-Nazi groups are at least partially responsible for the disturbances in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford last year—and yet, there is no protection in British law from such hate campaigns. Finally, there is currently an EU draft Framework Decision on Combating Racism and Xenophobia. Widespread support for the Avebury Bill would ensure the Governments support for this Framework Decision and thus protection from incitement of religious hatred throughout the European Union.
Lord Avebury’s Bill is now at the committee stage, and the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offence is presently calling for evidence from all interested parties. As myMember of Parliament, I urge you to support this Bill, particularly its provisions on the incitement of religious hatred. One way of supporting the Bill would be to submit your own written evidence to the Select Committee on Religious Offences. The deadline for this is the end of August. Perhaps you could also arrange to give oral evidence and encourage other Parliamentarians, MPs and Peers, to give both written and oral evidence. There are, of course, other means available to you as a Parliamentarian by which you may assist Lord Avebury’s initiative, and I very much hope that you will use them to their full.
I would be extremely grateful if you could please keep me informed of any action you take in this matter. I look forward to your full support and co-operation.
Yours sincerely,
[Name of constituent]