{"id":1934,"date":"2025-06-03T12:23:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T07:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=1934"},"modified":"2025-06-03T05:15:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T00:15:30","slug":"uk-man-convicted-for-quran-desecration-in-controversial-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/2025\/06\/03\/uk-man-convicted-for-quran-desecration-in-controversial-ruling","title":{"rendered":"UK Man Convicted for Quran Desecration in Controversial Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><strong>ISLAMABAD:\u00a0A British court has convicted a man for burning the Holy Quran outside London\u2019s Turkish consulate in a case critics warn revives blasphemy laws through legal backdoor.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">Hamit Coskun, 50, was fined \u00a3240 ($325) for a &#8220;religiously aggravated&#8221; public order offense after his February protest, where he shouted expletives while setting the Islamic scripture ablaze.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Court Rules Protest &#8220;Provocative and Hate-Motivated&#8221;<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">Judge John McGarva emphasized the verdict wasn\u2019t about blasphemy but disorderly conduct, citing Coskun\u2019s abusive language and deliberate provocation near a Muslim diplomatic mission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">&#8220;Your actions were motivated by hatred of Islam\u2019s followers,&#8221; the judge stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">The prosecution denied targeting free speech, insisting the charge stemmed from public disruption.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Free Speech Backlash<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">The National Secular Society and UK Conservatives condemned the ruling as a de facto blasphemy law, abolished in England in 2008.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">Coskun\u2019s lawyer argued the case criminalized anti-government protest\u2014he claimed his Kurdish-Armenian heritage fueled his stance against Ankara.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">During the incident, a passerby attacked Coskun with a knife, highlighting tensions around religious sensitivities in multicultural Britain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">The verdict sparks fresh debate: Can Western democracies balance free expression with preventing religious hatred? As secular groups vow appeals, the case sets a precedent that may chill dissent under the guise of public order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD:\u00a0A British court has convicted a man for burning the Holy Quran outside London\u2019s Turkish consulate in a case critics warn revives blasphemy laws through legal backdoor. Hamit Coskun, 50, was fined \u00a3240 ($325) for a &#8220;religiously aggravated&#8221; public order offense after his February protest, where he shouted expletives while setting the Islamic scripture ablaze. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[860,862,394,859,861],"class_list":["post-1934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-blasphemy","tag-free-speech","tag-protest","tag-quran","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1936,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/1936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}