A former British police officer has been convicted of posting offensive content on Facebook after he reposted an image mocking Islam, sparking accusations that blasphemy laws have returned to the United Kingdom.
Retired police officer Stephen Gray, 65, has been found guilty by the Newton Aycliffe magistrates’ court of breaching Section 127(1)(a) of the Communications Act 2003 over a post he reshared on Facebook, which was deemed to be “grossly offensive”.
According to The Telegraph, Gray was reported to the Durham Constabulary for two Facebook memes by a non-Muslim neighbour of his, whom Gray had previously been in a separate dispute with.
The first post reported to the police featured the title “time for mass deportations” next to a Middle Eastern man in his 20s or 30s with the words “Children in need”. It was captioned with: “12-year-old Mohammed recently arrived at Dover. Please donate to help him move from a three-star to a five-star hotel, which has a better halal menu, free Wi-Fi, and Sky and is nearer to a girls’ school”.
This post was not deemed by the court to violate the law, as it concerned a political issue that had been debated in Parliament.
The second meme depicted a picture of a man wearing a turban next to some bacon with the caption: “Fun facts about Bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9-year-old!”
As the post was not considered to be a political message, but rather critical of a religion, it was found to be “grossly offensive” by the court. For this, Gray was found guilty of violating the Communications Act and was ordered to pay £1,000 in fines and court costs.
Gray said of the ruling: “I made a joke, an ironic joke, about Islam. That is all it was at the end of the day. A joke. I certainly never, not for one second, thought it would be deemed abusive.”
“Back when I was serving, if I had taken this case to my sergeant or inspector, I would have been on foot beat night shift for the next five years for wasting everybody’s time. It wouldn’t have got past the front door of the police station,” he added.
The former police officer said that he plans to appeal the decision in order to prevent blasphemy from becoming a legal standard in Britain, saying: “I just think it’s a dangerous road that the Government is going down trying to use the justice system to get us to stop criticising a religion that promotes a lot of things people might not agree with.”
Gray is being supported in his case by the Free Speech Union (FSU), which suggested that the ruling was only made because the subject was Islam, rather than other religions.
FSU General Secretary Lord Young of Acton said: “Prosecuting people for making jokes about Islam, particularly if they contain a kernel of truth, is a new low.
“No one making a similar joke about Jesus would face prosecution. Blasphemy laws were abolished in England 18 years ago and should not be resurrected by the courts and applied to just one religion.”
“If Labour wants to make it a criminal offence to offend Muslims, but not Christians, Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists, Andy Burnham should include that in the next King’s Speech. Good luck getting it through Parliament.”
The Labour government is currently working on instituting an official definition of Islamophobia, which critics have warned would create a de facto blasphemy law for the Islamic faith. As a party, Labour has already backed the definition of Islamophobia laid out by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, which claims that examples of “classic Islamophobia” include: “Muhammed being a paedophile, claims of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule.”