A man accused of burning a Koran has had a charge of ‘harassing’ Islam dropped amid claims it was creating a blasphemy law by the back door.
Hamit Coskun, 50, allegedly set fire to the Muslim holy book outside the Turkish consulate, in west London, in February.
Two days later, he was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service with ‘racially aggravated harassment’ of the Islam, rather than any individuals.
But concern was raised by Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, along with the National Secular Society, that the move was creating a ‘blasphemy law by the back door’, 18 years after Parliament abolished Britain’s historic law against offending religions.
On Thursday Mr Jenrick wrote to the CPS calling for it to review its decision – and yesterday it said it had. The CPS insisted it was ‘not the case’ this was ‘in response to Mr Jenrick’s letter’.
Mr Coskun, from Derby, is still charged with racially aggravated harassment over the bible burning.
But at his next court appearance, the wording is set to be changed to allege that when burning the Koran, and shouting abuse, he was ‘motivated by hostility towards followers of Islam’, rather than that he harassed the ‘institution of Islam’ itself.
He denies the charges against him.
Mr Jenrick broke the news of the change yesterday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter, by saying: ‘The CPS have dropped the charge of causing alarm to the ‘religious institution of Islam’.
‘This was an invention that had no basis in law. But the updated charging decision is still concerning.
‘We must resist attempts to introduce blasphemy laws by the back door.’
Mr Coskun is now being said to have ’caused harassment, alarm or distress’ by holding the burning koran aloft while shouting ‘f*** Islam… Islam is a religion of terrorism’ and ‘Koran is burning’ while motivated by hostility to Muslims.
A CPS source said: ‘Blasphemy laws do not exist in England and Wales. All our cases are kept under review, and we identified it was not correct to refer in the charges to the ‘religious institution of Islam’.
‘It is still our case Mr Coskun committed a criminal offence.’
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: ‘We charged Hamit Coskun on the basis his actions caused harassment, alarm or distress – which is a criminal offence – and that this was motivated by hostility towards a religious or racial group.
‘As part of our continuous review of ongoing cases we concluded the wording of the charge was incorrectly applied and we have substituted a new charge to more accurately reflect the alleged offence.’