Blasphemy Laws for the 21st Century: Labour's Islamophobia Definition and the Shadow Over Britain's Justice, By Richard Miller (Londonistan)
In the dim corridors of Westminster, where scandals bloom like mould on damp walls, Angela Rayner's resignation over a council tax kerfuffle has handed Steve Reed a poisoned chalice: shepherding Labour's quest for an official "Islamophobia" definition into law. It's a move that's less about healing divides and more about drawing battle lines, ones that could shield the very predators who prowled Britain's streets in grooming gangs, while muzzlingwatchdogs for fear of the "racist" label. Conservative firebrand Claire Coutinho didn't mince words in The Times: This isn't reform; it's a "misguided attempt to stave off electoral threats," those risks granting "impunity" to child rapists and extremists. As X erupts with fury, from MPs like Nick Timothy decrying it as a "one-religion blasphemy law" to everyday voices fearing a "tsunami of hate crimes," the stakes couldn't be clearer. In this post, I'll unpack the rot: how a term birthed by the Muslim Brotherhood could entrench two-tier policing, silence survivors, and betray the working-class girls who paid the price for political cowardice.
Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, these aren't just place names; they're synonyms for systemic failure. Over decades, predominantly Muslim men systematically raped, trafficked, and brutalised thousands of mostly white, working-class girls, often as young as 11. Independent inquiries, from Alexis Jay's 2014 Rotherham report to the 2022 Oldham review, laid it bare: Police and councils turned blind eyes, paralysed by fears of "appearing racist." One officer admitted ignoring a victims plea because "she was a white sl*g." The toll? Up to 1,400 victims in Rotherham alone, with ripple effects of trauma, addiction, and suicide.
Fast-forward to 2025: Labour's in power, but the ghosts linger. The party's manifesto pledged a working group on "anti-Muslim hatred," now rebranded under Reed as a full-throated push for an Islamophobia law. Critics like Free Speech Union director Toby Young warn it'll make cops "more hesitant about investigating Muslims suspected of criminal offences," deepening the "two-tierism" that let gangs thrive. X users echo this: One post blasts Reed for urging councils, including grooming hotspots like Telford and Wakefield, to adopt a definition branding gang discussions "racist." Coutinho's verdict? It "intensifies the culture of censorship that allowed the grooming gangs to carry out their crimes with impunity."
At the heart lurks the 2018 All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (APPG) definition: "Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness." Sounds anodyne? Dig deeper: Examples include "claims of Muslims spreading Islam 'by the sword'" or "accusations of barbarism and civilisational incompatibility," even denying historical facts about conquests. And crucially: Highlighting heritage in grooming gangs? That's "racist."
Reed, then shadow local government secretary, evangelized this in 2021 letters to councils, many Labour-run and in scandal zones. Now, as minister, he's at the helm of formalising it, despite government equivocation on "anti-Muslim hatred" over the APPG's breadth. X lit up with Coutinho's takedown: "He must now investigate whether the definition he asked them to adopt hindered their ability to investigate these evil crimes." The Muslim Brotherhood coined "Islamophobia" in the 1990s to equate criticism with bigotry; Labour's embrace risks codifying it, per critics.
Coutinho nails the motive: "Red meat" for Labour's eroding Muslim base, defecting to pro-Gaza independents like The Muslim Vote. In 2024 by-elections, Labour lost seats in Muslim-heavy wards; this is damage control, not justice. But the fallout? A chilling effect on probes. Young predicts "further entrenchment of two-tierism," where jihadist tips get soft-pedalled lest they smack of bias. Coutinho extends it: Shutting down talks on "gender equality" (think FGM, forced marriages) and "Islamist extremism."
X amplifies the alarm: Posts link it to midnight arrests for "hate" tweets, fearing a "blasphemy law for Islam." One user quips: "The Police are overstretched, they want to arrest more for blasphemy against Islam but lack resources." Even The Sun reports internal pressure on Starmer to "quietly drop" it, with Whitehall eyeing a U-turn. Yet, as one post warns, it's "the first step" to criminalising Islam critique.
This isn't isolated, it's Labour's authoritarian arc: Expanding "non-crime hate incidents," digital IDs (absent from the manifesto), and speech codes. The Left media notes defining it is "hard" because it blurs prejudice with legitimate critique, like calling out grooming patterns or Islamist threats. Policy Exchange's Paul Stott ties it to manifesto omissions, echoing broader power grabs.
Labour's flirtation with this definition isn't protection, it's protectionism for the indefensible, prioritising votes over victims and dogma over debate. Coutinho's right: "We cannot put some groups... free from legitimate challenge." Starmer faces a fork: Quietly bin it, as Sun sources suggest, or own the fallout, a Britain where girls fear streets more than slurs, and cops chase tweets over traffickers. X's chorus, from Coutinho's 2K+ likes to viral memes, demands the latter. Free speech isn't optional; it's oxygen. Starmer of course, will continue to crush free speech.
"What have been called Muslim child rape grooming gangs, and jihadists may be shielded from scrutiny in the public sphere in Britain if the left-wing Labour Party government criminalises so-called "Islamophobia", a leading Conservative MP warned.
Following the resignation of Deputy PM Angela Rayner earlier this month over a property tax scandal, the task of overseeing the Labour Party's working group to establish a definition for Islamophobia to institute into law has fallen to Rayner's replacement as housing and communities secretary, Steve Reed MP.
In 2021, while serving as shadow local government secretary, Reed urged Labour-run councils to adopt the definition of Islamophobia laid out by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims. The definition, which was later adopted by the party as a whole, branded discussions identifying Pakistani Muslims as the chief perpetrators of the child rape grooming gang atrocities as "racist" and an example of Islamophobia.
This conclusion came despite numerous reports finding that the mass sexual exploitation of mostly young white working-class girls was consistently overlooked by police and local officials for fear of appearing racist.
The prospect of formalising the concept of Islamophobia — a term invented by the radical Muslim Brotherhood — into law has sparked warnings that it may further disincentivise police from preventing further grooming gang abuses or even from stopping potential jihadists from committing terror in Britain lest they face accusations of acting out Islamophobic intentions.
Director of the Free Speech Union, Lord Toby Young, told the Daily Mail: "I don't think it's at all fanciful to think that if the Government rolls out an official, state-approved definition of Islamophobia, it will make the police and the security services more hesitant about investigating Muslims suspected of criminal offences. It will further entrench two-tierism in the criminal justice system."
Conservative MP and shadow equalities minister, Claire Coutinho, accused the Labour Party of attempting to provide red meat to its Muslim voter base, which has been shifting away from the leftist party to independent candidates running on explicitly pro-Gaza platforms in recent years.
"In reality, Labour is not seeking to change criminal law. Instead, this is a misguided attempt to stave off the electoral threat that The Muslim Vote candidates pose to Labour seats. If we learn anything from the horrific mistakes made over the grooming gangs and dangerous gender ideology it must be this: we cannot put some groups in society on a pedestal, free from legitimate challenge. Labour must scrap this definition now," Coutinho wrote in The Times of London.
The Tory MP argued that introducing a government definition of Islamophobia would only "intensify the culture of censorship that allowed the grooming gangs to carry out their crimes with impunity" and would "shut down difficult but necessary conversations about grooming gangs, gender equality, and even Islamist extremism."
Coutinho also noted that some of the Labour-run councils which adopted the controversial APPG definition of Islamophobia after the urging of Reed in 2021, included the grooming gang hot spots Telford & Wrekin, Ipswich, Kirklees, and Wakefield.
She warned: "It is not clear whether Labour's Islamophobia definition hindered action — but surely any government would want to know before the same mistakes are repeated.""
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