No religion has a ‘right not to be offended’, says security minister

No religion has a right to be exempt from criticism, the security minister has said ahead of a crackdown on extremism.

Tom Tugendhat said no faith had a right not to be challenged amid concerns that some extremists have used intimidation and threats of violence against those perceived to have insulted Islam.

It follows the case of a teacher in Batley, West Yorks, who received death threats after showing pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed during a religious education lesson almost two years ago and has remained in hiding ever since as he fears for his life.

Mr Tugendhat declined to comment on individual cases but he said: “There is absolutely no right for any religion to be offended, if we accepted that then we’d still be Catholic.

“Every religion has the right to be challenged and there is no religion that has the right to be immune from that for any reason at all.”

Speaking on GB News, he added: “Anybody can challenge any article of any faith, it is absolutely fundamental, and there is no right to be immune from that.

“You know very well, because it’s the fundamental tenet of your job as a journalist to have freedom of speech.”

New definition of extremism to be announced

His comments come ahead of an announcement this week of a new official definition of extremism that will enable the Government and bodies such as universities and councils to ban funding for, or engagement with, Islamist and far-Right groups.

The definition, to be unveiled by Michael Gove, the Communities Secretary, will replace the existing Prevent counter-terror programmes’ definition, giving “more specificity on the ideologies, behaviour and groups of concern”.

It will enable Government and public bodies to bar groups from venues or campuses and block funding if they are judged to be promoting extremist ideology that “undermines” or “overturns” British values.

Protests condemning acts of apparent blasphemy have become more frequent and radicalised, according to independent research commissioned by the Government’s counter-extremism chief.

The report exposes links between activists at the forefront of recent protests in the UK and an extremist Islamist political party in Pakistan whose members have regularly called for blasphemers to be beheaded.

Robin Simcox, the Government’s counter-extremism tsar, commissioned the research after three blasphemy flashpoints in the UK.

These included the 2021 protests against the Batley teacher; Birmingham protests over the screening of the film The Lady in Heaven, which depicted Mohammed’s daughter; and last year’s controversy in Wakefield after a copy of the Quran was slightly damaged at a high school.

‘Government hasn’t had the spine to take them on’

It comes as the Government faced criticism from Fiyaz Mughal, a campaigner against extremism, who was lined up to become Mr Gove’s anti-Muslim-hatred tsar until withdrawing his application at the weekend amid a torrent of abuse and threats on social media from Islamists and the far-Right.

Along with senior MPs, he is urging Mr Gove to publish a list of the extremist groups that would be caught by the new definition.

Mr Mughal told the Telegraph: “These groups have gone under the radar because Government has never had the spine to take them on. We need to call them out to let the public see them and know them for what they are.

“They are a threat to our country. Yet, police and other organisations have been engaging with some of these Islamist groups to provide training.”

He also alleged some officials in Whitehall were sympathetic to Islamists, which, he said, was part of the problem. He added: “They have civil servants who have sympathies to these groups.”