Some Christians and other faith groups are urging the U.K. government not to redefine the term Islamophobia.
A government working group has been looking into redefining Islamophobia into ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ to reflect a “wide range of perspectives and priorities for British Muslims."
It was set up a year ago and is due to announce its final recommendation soon.
However, a draft definition of the term is said to be too broad and there are fears it would silence any criticism of Islam.
Christian Concern’s head of public policy, Tim Dieppe, is among a group who has written to the Communities Secretary Steve Reed saying the new term could be open to misuse by those who seek to limit freedom of speech. Other signatories include Lord Singh, the director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, the Hindu Council UK and Fiyaz Mughal who founded the anti-Muslim hatred charity Tell Mama.
Dieppe told Premier Christian News: “Part of the concern is that ‘hostility’ is a wider term than hatred and could include things like disagreeing with people. People get accused of being hostile because they disagree with certain things. So just disagreeing with Islamic practices or doctrines could cause you to fall foul of this definition.”
He said he is also concerned about a new definition which includes "prejudicial stereotyping" of Muslims: “So if I say something like, ‘Muslims worship Allah, or Muslims don't drink alcohol, or Muslims won't eat pork’, that kind of thing could be accused of being prejudicially stereotypical of Muslims. So there are many, many ways that people are concerned about this definition, and the fact is that activists will use it in those kind of ways to try and stifle criticism of Islam.”
Dieppe said he and the other signatories don’t believe any new definition is needed because “anti-Muslim hatred is clear, without any special definition."
He added: "If you give a special definition to Muslims, you'll be privileging Muslims over other religions and over other faiths, and restricting speech in terms of what you can say about Islam in a way that's not fair and not right and not what a free and democratic society should have.”
Reed said it’s necessary to address the problem of anti-Muslim hatred because 40 per cent of all complaints about hatred affect the Muslim community.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “We’ve been clear we would never consider a definition that would stifle free speech.
“Work around any new definition is still being considered and no decisions have been made, but this will remain at the forefront of our minds as we consider the working group’s advice.”