Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

moved Amendment No. 3:"Page 1, line 7, at end insert—" ““(   )   provides that the condemnation of, or protest against, the justification of certain practices on religious grounds shall not be an offence.”” The noble Earl said: I welcome Leonidas back to the Front Bench opposite. The amendment attempts to tease out from the Government why it should be all right not to hate somebody who advocates hateful policies. Amendment No. 30 to the Schedule, which is grouped with the amendment, states:"““Nothing in this Part applies to the condemnation of, or protest against, the justification on religious grounds of the following practices—""(a) cruel and unusual punishments,""(b) ritual murder or mutilation,""(c) discrimination between people on the grounds of gender or sexual orientation,""(d) persecution or genocide””." I suggest that most of those are actually illegal under British law. I also suggest that, in the well-established case of a Shia cleric who ensured the conviction of a young girl, aged 18, for pre-marital sexual intercourse, he not only advocated her conviction but he also went and put the noose around her neck. I do not know about noble Lords, but I personally find that detestable. It is meet to be detested, and should be by every single person in this Chamber. What this Bill could do—although I am obviously open to correction—is to say that I could be prosecuted for saying that it was a detestable habit and that the man who did it was an odious human being. I would say that with intent, and mean every single word. I give that as one example. At Second Reading, the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor said that religion had actually been defined. Now there is, as we know through evidence of it, a religion involving witchcraft and the mutilation of small boys. Their torsos were thrown into the Thames. I know that these things are illegal, but it seems odd to me that I cannot hate them. I may have misinterpreted the Bill; I may have it all wrong. But I am advised that I have not. Can the Minister clear my mind, and either accept the amendment or something like it in whatever form the Bill takes? Or can she explain to me that there is no such provision in the Bill and that I am quite entitled to go on hating Shia clerics who pull the legs of young girls dangling in a noose outside Tehran? I beg to move.