"It applies equally to far-right evangelical Christians as to extremists in the Islamic faith," Blunkett

LONDON , July 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Britain has unveiled plans to put forward a legislation making it a crime to incite religious hatred, including against Muslims.

Inciting hatred against other races is already a crime in Britain but there is no equivalent law protecting all religions, Reuters said.

A previous bid to create such legislation after the 2001 US attacks was blocked by Britain 's upper parliamentary chamber, the House of Lords, which objected to its status as an add-on to sweeping new anti-terrorism legislation.

"We tried unsuccessfully to introduce an offence of incitement to religious hatred in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks but I hope we will now have the parliamentary backing to put this in law," Home Secretary David Blunkett was quoted by Reuters as saying Wednesday, July 7.

Blunkett said the law, which will probably take more than a year to introduce even if it does not again meet parliamentary opposition, would apply equally to "Islamic extremists" as to those who target Muslims.

"It applies equally to far-right evangelical Christians as to extremists in the Islamic faith," he added in a speech to an Institute for Public Policy Research conference in London .

Blunkett made clear that he was equally concerned about a handful among Britain 's two million Muslims who might exploit the nation's tradition of freedom of speech to lash out at others.

Tough Ride

Some religious leaders welcomed the plan, but politicians warned it would again face a tough ride through parliament due to civil liberties concerns and overlaps with other laws.

"This is a long overdue measure but nevertheless is a welcome first step," said Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, adding that far right groups had stepped up "virulently anti-Muslim invective" of late.

A Jewish leader, Rabbi Jonathan Romain, said the proposal filled a "worrying gap" by extending Muslims and Christians similar protection to that already afforded to Jews and Sikhs under other separate legislation.

"This currently leaves them exposed to verbal insults, inflammatory sermons and offensive pamphlets," he added.

But the Islamic Human Rights Commission feared that religious minorities could find themselves the targets of prosecutions, potentially even from other religious groups.

"In the light of the well-recognized institutional Islamophobic society that we have at the moment, this legislation could very well be used against Muslim communities, rather than protecting them," said its chairman Massoud Shadjareh.

Threats

Labor peer Lord Desai predicted Blunkett's idea would again have a "very difficult time" in the Lords.

And the opposition Conservatives accused Prime Minister Tony Blair's government of opportunism prior to two parliamentary by-elections next week.

Both seats in central England are traditionally solid ground for Blair's Labour Party but have big Muslim populations so are vulnerable due to disquiet over Iraq .

"This was debated after September 11th and turned out to be completely unworkable," the Conservatives' home affairs spokesman David Davis said of Blunkett's proposal.

"It will impinge on civil liberties and only serve to make lawyers rich ... Perfectly adequate laws against violence or conspiracies to commit violence already exist."

Britain 's National Secular Society was scathing about Blunkett's plans, likening them to medieval blasphemy laws and saying similar legislation in Australia had resulted in farce.

"We are on very dangerous territory here, and Blunkett is rushing in once more with legislation that seeks to control thought and opinion," said its executive director Keith Porteous Wood.

"Not since Tudor times is religion being given so much power to silence its opponents."

British Muslims, estimated at two million people, complain of recent growing hate crimes after the September 11 attacks, which they said were demonstrated in the stop and search incidents.

In May 2004, British anti-terrorism poster, depicting a pair of eyes surrounded by a black background, and distributed across England and Wales , drew ire from leading mainstream Muslim groups.

Concern about racial and religious hatred are linked in part to the British National Party (BNP), an explicitly anti-immigrant group that controls a small but notable number of local council seats in England .