Man fined after burning Qur’an outdoor Turkish consulate in London

A person has been fined after he set fireplace to a Qur’an outdoor the Turkish consulate in London, in an act that used to be deemed “motivated at least in part by a hatred of Muslims” by means of a pass judgement on.

Hamit Coskun, 50, who used to be discovered in charge of a religiously annoyed public order offence on Monday, known as his prosecution “an assault on free speech”.

In February, Coskun travelled from his house within the Midlands to Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, the place he set fireplace to a duplicate of the Islamic holy guide and shouted “fuck Islam”, “Islam is religion of terrorism” and “Qur’an is burning”.

Coskun, who used to be born in Turkey and is part Kurdish and part Armenian, argued in court docket that he had protested peacefully and burning the Qur’an amounted to freedom of expression.

Judge McGarva discovered that Coskun’s movements had been “highly provocative” and mentioned he used to be “motivated at least in part by a hatred of Muslims”. Coskun had argued his grievance used to be of Islam on the whole moderately than its fans however McGarva mentioned he may now not settle for this.

Coskun’s felony charges are being paid by means of the National Secular Society and the Free Speech Union, either one of which criticised the ruling and mentioned they supposed to enchantment “and keep on appealing it until it’s overturned”.

The advocacy workforce Muslim Engagement and Development quoted the pass judgement on’s sentencing remarks on X, commenting at the ruling with the hashtag #hatespeechisnotfreespeech.

The ruling has caused remark from figures in Westminster. The top minister’s legitimate spokesperson declined to remark at the case however mentioned there have been no blasphemy regulations in England nor had been there plans to introduce any.

Kemi Badenoch, the chief of the Conservative celebration, mentioned on X that the case “should go to appeal”. “Freedom of belief, and freedom not to believe, are inalienable rights in Britain,” she mentioned. “I’ll defend those rights to my dying day.”

McGarva, who issued a high-quality of £240, rejected the concept the prosecution used to be “an attempt to bring back and expand blasphemy law”.

In his ruling, he mentioned burning a non secular guide and making grievance of Islam or the Qur’an are “not necessarily disorderly”, however added: “What made his conduct disorderly was the timing and location of the conduct and that all this was accompanied by abusive language.”

The pass judgement on mentioned Coskun, who’s an atheist, had a “deep-seated hatred of Islam and its followers” in accordance with his reports in Turkey and the reports of his circle of relatives, and that it used to be “not possible to separate his views about the religion from his views about its followers”.

The pass judgement on mentioned: “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.”