An atheist Islamophobe who was fined for burning a copy of the Holy Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London has won an appeal against his conviction following a right-wing backlash, raising fears of future anti-Islam hate protests on British shores.
Hamit Coskun, 51, was found guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of a religiously aggravated public order offence and fined £240 after he shouted abusive comments against Islam as he held a flaming Quran aloft in Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, on February 13.
But at Southwark Crown Court today, Mr Justice Bennathan said that while burning a Quran might be something “many Muslims find desperately upsetting and offensive”, the right to freedom of expression “must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb.”
He ruled: “There is no offence of blasphemy in our law. Burning a Koran may be an act that many Muslims find desperately upsetting and offensive. The criminal law, however, is not a mechanism that seeks to avoid people being upset, even grievously upset. The right to freedom of expression, if it is a right worth having, must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb.
“We live in a liberal democracy. One of the precious rights that affords us is to express our own views and read, hear and consider ideas without the state intervening to stop us doing so. The price we pay for that is having to allow others to exercise the same rights, even if that upsets, offends or shocks us…
“It follows from our consideration of the evidence that the Prosecution have not succeeded in making us sure either that the Defendant’s conduct can properly be found to be disorderly, or that it was within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby. We therefore do not need to consider the later issues upon which we have been addressed, and we must allow this appeal.”
Celebrating the decision was pro-Israel Conservative MP Robert Jenrick who posted on X.
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“Hamit Coskun has been cleared. Good. I didn’t like what Mr Coskun did; burning a religious text was not pleasant. But it was also never criminal. So, this is an important victory for free speech. Parliament voted to abolish blasphemy laws 20 years ago. It was disgraceful that the authorities attempted to re-create them by the back door.”
Coskun, who was born in Turkey and is half Kurdish and half Armenian, has argued that he had protested peacefully and burning the Quran amounted to freedom of expression.
While burning the Quran in London Coskun shouted “f**k Islam” and “Islam is religion of terrorism.”
Coskun was later attacked by a man called Moussa Kadri, who came out of a residential building and told Coskun “I’m going to kill you,” before returning and slashing at him with a knife. Kadri later told police he was protecting his religion.
Kadri, 59, was handed a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to assault and having a bladed article in a public place.
In June, the judge who found Coskun guilty said he had a “deep-seated hatred of Islam and its followers” based on his experiences in Turkey and the experiences of his family, and that it was “not possible to separate his views about the religion from his views about its followers”.
The judge also said: “A criminal conviction is a proportionate response to the defendant’s conduct.
“I am sure that the defendant acted in a disorderly way by burning the Qur’an very obviously in front of the Turkish consulate, where there were people who were likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress and accompanying his provocative act with bad language.
“I am sure that he was motivated at least in part by a hatred of Muslims. I therefore find the defendant guilty.”
