Islam seems to have been chosen as the preferred religion of the Left elites, not for personal practice, but to be cultivated as part of the program of Western civilisation replacement, which must now be taken as the defining feature of the Left, not economic reform, which has long age been abandoned with the Old Left.
Thus, globo commo PM Starmer, no friend of free speech and Western liberal values, has refused to rule out introducing blasphemy laws to protect Islam from criticism. "Desecration is awful, and I think it should be condemned across the House." "We are committed to tackling all forms of hatred and division including Islamophobia in all its forms." Islamophobia is defined by the Left, just as with "racism," as any criticism of Islam by Whites. And the UK already has blasphemy laws: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/11/30/britain-already-has-blasphemy-laws/:
""Anyone outraged by Labour MP Tahir Ali calling on the Government to introduce blasphemy laws has clearly not been paying attention, says Stephen Daisley in the Spectator, for there are already blasphemy laws in this country. Here's an excerpt.
All Ali wants to do is make the [blasphemy laws] official. When he urges Sir Keir Starmer to prohibit the desecration of the Qur'an and other Abrahamic religious texts, as he did at Prime Minister's Questions, he will be aware that people are already punished for desecrating the Muslim holy book, including children.
In March 2023, a 14 year-old boy was suspended from school in Wakefield after a copy of the Qur'an was 'scuffed'. So great was the indignation that his mother eventually went before the local mosque, her sinful hair covered, and pleaded for her son's safety.
In this country, we're tough on blasphemy and tough on the causes of blasphemy. Just ask the Batley Grammar School teacher who faced protests from Muslims in March 2021 after he included an illustration of the Prophet Mohammed in a religious studies lesson. Well, you could ask him, except he's apparently rather fond of his head and so has been in hiding ever since.
In fact, such is our zero-tolerance approach that we even punish Muslims who say or think the wrong thing about matters theological. In June 2022, cinemas across the U.K. pulled screenings of The Lady of Heaven, a historical epic telling Islam's story from a Shia perspective, which did not go down well with elements of Britain's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population. Mosques lobbied cinemas not to show the film, crowds of Muslim men gathered outside movie theatres, and Islamic website 5Pillars published a review denouncing The Lady of Heaven as "pure, unadulterated sectarian filth" and warned of "tensions". (I always wondered what Pauline Kael would have sounded like from behind a burqa.)
While it might be jarring to secular ears to hear a British-born Labour MP propose the re-introduction of blasphemy laws, Ali is simply representing a section of his constituents.
A poll in March found that 52% of U.K. Muslims favour "making it illegal to show a picture or cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed" at some point in the coming 20 years. Reassuringly, the same poll showed a stout 23% opposed to the implementation of sharia."
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/keir-starmer-blasphemy-laws-free-speech-tahir-ali
"Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out introducing blasphemy laws after a Labour MP demanded the Prime Minister prohibits the "desecration of religious texts", including the Koran.
During Prime Minister's Questions, Starmer was quizzed on his position on so-called blasphemy laws as the UK continues to mark Islamophobia Awareness Month.
Ali, who represents Britain's second-most Muslim constituency with over half of his residents following Islam, said: "November marks Islamophobia Awareness Month - last year, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning the desecration of religious texts, including the Koran.
"Despite opposition from the previous Government, acts of such mindless desecration only serve to fuel division and hatred within our society.
"Will the Prime Minister commit to introducing measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions?"
In response, Starmer refused to rule out introducing measures, with campaigners fearing any change to the law would lead risk a clampdown on free speech.
The Prime Minister said: "Desecration is awful, and I think it should be condemned across the House.
"We are committed to tackling all forms of hatred and division including Islamophobia in all its forms."
"Left-wing Labour Member of Parliament Tahir Ali used Parliamentary question to Prime Minister to call for ban on "desecrations" of texts and prophets, eliciting a positive response from Sir Keir Starmer.
Tahir Ali was representing the interests of the voters of his Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley constituency on Wednesday when he called on the Prime Minister to introduce new rules to ban the "desecrations" of religious texts and "the prophets of the Abrahamic religions". The remarkable call to re-introduce a blasphemy law in Britain — the country already abolished the archaic legal idea by legislation in 2008 and 2021 — comes amid such pressure seen elsewhere across Europe as hard-won freedom of expression standards backslide.
The Labour MP, who recently had to issue an apology over accusing the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of having "the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands" over Palestine told the Prime Minister that it is Islamophobia Awareness Month, and said desecration caused "hatred" in society.
Ali told the chamber: "Last year, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning the desecration of religious texts including the Quran, despite opposition from the previous government. Acts of such mindless desecration only serve to fuel division and hatred within our society.
"Will the Prime Minister commit to introducing measures to prohibit the desecrations of all religious texts, and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions?".
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer didn't exactly respond to the question — as is common in Prime Minister's Questions sessions — but told Ali he accepted the basic premise of his speech. He replied: "Can I agree with him that desecration is awful and should be condemned across the house. We are, as I have said before, committed to tackling all forms of hatred and division including of course Islamophobia in all of its forms."
Birmingham MP Ali is one of several Labour MPs who saw their majorities slashed in "heavily Muslim areas" — and in some cases even lose their seats — to insurgent pro-Palestine candidates. In Hall Green and Moseley Ali was opposed by two Palestine-focussed independents, including one who had been subjected to a court order banning him from a local school over anti-equality protests.
The two candidates combined got more votes than Labour's Ali but as they were fighting each other as well as the incumbent, he fared better than some other Labour MPs. The pro-Gaza MPs who did win out against Labour challengers and who now sit in Parliament have since formed an 'independent' group with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was expelled from the party over the fallout from their antisemitism scandal.
While the United Kingdom has already abolished blasphemy laws, this pressure to roll back on that progress is reflected elsewhere in Europe where governments are frequently lobbied to enact protections, and particularly for books like the Qur'an. These calls are heard loudest in European countries where politicians and activists have depicted the prophet Mohammed, or burned copies of the Qur'an in public.
Naturally, such acts are controversial. On one hand, the activists involved state aggressive — and sometimes even deadly — responses by individual Muslims to these protests illustrate their underlying point that Islam can tend towards being thin-skinned in the face of criticism and fast to anger in the face of perceived slights. On the other hand, such acts are decried by some as provocative, insensitive, and offensive to the faith, and should consequently be outlawed.
Denmark, for instance, had abolished its 334-year-old blasphemy law in 2017 as part of a broader centuries-long European move towards liberal democracy, but a left-wing government brought the law back in 2023. The law was passed to target the phenomenon of Qur'an burnings and made desecrating holy books illegal.
A government spokesman speaking last year appeared to inadvertently make the burner's case for them when he said the ban was a matter of national security, saying they harmed the interests of the Danish state abroad and had increased terrorism threats. Former government minister Inger Støjberg called the development a victory for "the unfree, medieval forces in the Middle East". She said: "They can now see that they can dictate our way of life in Denmark, because we have a government that bows to threats and pressure."
Sweden has come under immense pressure to bring back centuries-old blasphemy laws it abolished in the 1970s over the course of its attempt to join the NATO alliance, as Turkey was able to veto its membership. Rasmus Paludan, perhaps the most famous — or infamous — Qur'an protester in Europe was jailed in Sweden earlier this year in connection to one demonstration. The ruling is being appealed."