Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, this Bill will give members of all faiths equal protection from incitement to hatred on the basis of their religion. When such a provision was last before your Lordships as part of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, I said then, and I still believe, that in a democratic society everyone has the right to voice their opinion and to demonstrate. But human rights and freedom of speech must be balanced by citizens’ responsibilities to others. No one has the right to incite hatred against religious groups and all faith communities deserve the full protection of the criminal law when their human rights are threatened. It is clear from the mail we have all received that many Christians are concerned that in some way they will be adversely affected by this Bill, but I sincerely hope that when they study the Bill closely, they can be reassured that their fears are unfounded. The provision is about protecting people. It is not about protecting a religion itself. Many letters quote the Australian experience, which has been mentioned in the House already today. The Australian legislation is different from anything that would come here. Any comparison shows that our proposed legislation is carefully framed to avoid the kind of abuses that are feared. Because of the fears expressed it is important to emphasise what this Bill will not do. It will not outlaw criticising the belief, teachings or practices of a religion or its followers; nor proselytising one’s own religion or urging the followers of another religion to stop practising theirs; nor telling jokes about religions; nor expressing dislike of one particular religion or its followers. Support for such a provision has come from ACPO, the CRE, Justice and the Law Society. Time does not permit extensive quotations from the impressive list of supporters, but I commend to your Lordships the excellent statement of last January from the Churches’ Commission on Inter Faith Relations. That statement was signed by the noble Baroness, Lady Richardson of Calow, and by representatives of many other faith communities, including the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Free Churches, the Muslim and Hindu communities, the Sikhs, the Jewish Board of Deputies and the Buddhist, Jain, Bahai and Zoroastrian communities. The statement says:"““The Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Zoroastrian faith communities as well as others are not protected from incitement to hatred in the same way as the Jewish and Sikh communities””." It continues:"““The current gap in the law is not only inequitable it is also dangerous. It leaves the way open for extremists to incite hatred of religious groups not covered by the law at present, setting one group against another in ways which could significantly undermine the good community relations, painstakingly developed by ethnic and faith communities in Britain over recent decades. Where this happens it is not just specific communities who are vulnerable—the bonds of our common society are put under strain””." Critics of the proposed legislation have argued that race and religion have to be treated differently because people cannot choose their race as they can their religion. On that point I agree with the Churches’ Commission on Inter Faith Relations, which said:"““it is important to recognise that in the context of combating hate crimes at least, there is a significant overlap between racial and religious identity. The issue of choice of belief in this situation is an irrelevant one. This point is clearly understood in the context of the Northern Ireland Legislation and the recent legislation in Scotland””." I cannot understand how anyone who is familiar with Northern Ireland, or who like myself, or the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, who unfortunately is not now in her place, who were born, educated and grew up in the west of Scotland can have any doubts about the terrible nature of the cancer of religious hatred, which is called sectarianism when it is inside one religion such as Christianity, and the awful corrosive effect that it has on the whole of society. The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 provides in Section 74 for an offence to be aggravated by reason of religious prejudice. That provision was added as a result of an amendment tabled by a Liberal Democrat MSP, and supported by the Scottish Executive. It followed the deliberations of a cross-party working group convened by the Scottish Parliament to consider legislative and non-legislative measures to combat religious hatred and, in particular, the creation of a new category of statutory aggravations. As a Scot living in Scotland, I greatly welcome the efforts of the Scottish Parliament led by the high-profile, outspoken efforts of the First Minister in particular, to tackle sectarianism throughout Scottish Society. I believe that religious hatred cannot be adequately tackled without some kind of legislation. The legal system of England and Wales is, of course, different from other systems be they in Australia, Northern Ireland or Scotland. But it seems to me that the Bill is the correct road for us to follow at this point in our history. I have no doubts that this provision is needed to curb the activity of extremist organisations. ACPO has said that the hatred stirred up by extremists such as the BNP contributed to the Bradford and Burnley riots in 2001. It is also intended to have a deterrent effect. The Board of Deputies of British Jews believes that having the offence of incitement to racial hatred has reduced the amount of anti-Semitic literature. It will also remove the anomaly whereby mono-ethnic faith groups such as Sikhs and Jews are protected under the incitement to racial hatred provision, whereas multi-ethnic groups, such as Muslims and Christians, are not. It is to be hoped that the Bill will also reassure Muslim communities at this time when many of them feel vulnerable that they have the full protection of the law from any acts of hatred against them. Much has been said recently about the importance of signals to our Muslim communities. Well, this is surely the right signal at the right time, as well as being the right thing to do for the whole of our society.