Ministers playing ‘dangerous game’ with Bill

Sir, – In a letter, Ian Stewart, convener of Atheist Scotland, told The Courier (Watching out for religious hatred, August 25): “We fully intend to monitor all Holy Books, sermons in places of worship and the social media accounts of the various religions and report any hatred to Police Scotland for criminal investigation.”

Mr Stewart is at odds with atheists at the National Secular Society and the Humanist Society Scotland who are campaigning against the Hate Crime Bill.

This is a perfect illustration of why the dangerous new ‘stirring up hatred’ offences are such a terrible idea.

They will give politically-motivated complainants like Mr Stewart a powerful weapon against their ideological opponents.

Vexatious activists will be able to dial 999 and accuse someone of stirring up hatred and the police may have no alternative but to investigate.

The threshold of the proposed offences is so low that Mr Stewart might well be able to persuade a police officer that certain unfashionable Bible verses or sermons are ‘hate crimes’.

Does the Scottish Government want to expose ministers to the risk of prosecution?

The Bill says you only have to show the words are ‘abusive’ and ‘likely to stir up hatred’ for an offence to be proved.

In the current political climate, all kinds of legitimate speech gets tagged as ‘abusive’ and ‘hateful’ by activists who are just trying to shut down debate.

This is the febrile climate into which the Scottish Government plans to inject its new hate crime law.

Ministers are playing a dangerous game.

The Bill is going to increase division and rancour. Meanwhile it will do little to help real victims of crime.

How are the police going to have time to deal with ludicrous allegations from people who see hate crime legislation as a means to enforce their own authoritarian views?

The new stirring up offences are dangerous, ridiculous, unpopular and unworkable.

In England, the SNP voted to trim back stirring up offences to threatening words that are intended to stir up hatred. Yet in Scotland they want to criminalise words that are deemed ‘abusive’ and merely ‘likely to stir up hatred’.

Why do they want a worse law for Scotland?

The chorus of protests about the dangers of this approach has come from every part of the political and philosophical spectrum.

Thankfully, Mr Stewart does not represent all atheists.

The National Secular Society has even joined forces with the Christian Institute to defend free speech for all under the banner of the Free to Disagree campaign. Simon Calvert. Deputy director for public affairs,

The Christian Institute.