Evangelicals "Alarmed" as Religious Hatred Bill Amendments are Defeated

The controversial proposals by the government to make 'incitement to religious hatred' an offence have overcome another hurdle, as a bid to amend the bill's contents was dismissed.

The bid expressed the need to narrow the definition of racial and religious hatred, and was led by the Liberal Democrat party. However, the amendments were defeated in a vote by 291 votes to just 191.

The government can see the latest battle as a further victory against campaigners, as they were only forced to make a solitary concession to rename the offence as "hatred against persons on racial or religious grounds."

The concession came as a huge number of campaigners, including comedian Rowan Atkinson and many evangelical Christian groups rallied together over the past few months to criticise the proposed bill.

Hazel Blears, the Home Office Minister stated that the name alteration would allow the bill’s purpose to be clarified as "protecting people, not about the ability to criticise, ridicule, lampoon and have fundamental disagreements about beliefs. It is absolutely right in a modern democracy that people should have the ability to engage in that robust and vigorous debate and the position of the government is not that we seek to outlaw that at all."

Rowan Atkinson and evangelicals, however, remain discontented at the proposals, believing the new law to be too broad. Atkinson said, "The only safety valve that they have put in the legislation is the fact that the attorney general will have the final say. A safety valve operated by a politician subject to the political agendas of the day is not a good enough safety valve."

Also playing a leading role in opposing the bill has been the Barnabas Fund, which is a religious liberties charity. They have released a briefing pack and sent them to MP’s warning them of the threat the proposals make to freedom of speech.

Barnabas Fund’s Paul Cook lamented that the law may lead to the prevention of missionary work, religious debating and religious jokes, and said that the law as it was may be open to abuse. Cook commented, "There is absolutely nothing in the text of this legislation to guarantee this. Government promises are no substitute for a clear distinction between language that incites hate and legitimate criticism to be written into the law."

Campaigners opposing the bill now have one major hope remaining for the bill to be rejected – when it goes before the House of Lords.

In response to the latest battle about the bill the Evangelical Alliance reported that it was greatly "alarmed" that the bill was still likely to result in the restriction of freedom of speech, and that it could lead to further damage to community relations in the future.