By Team

Recommendations in a report on ‘Hinduphobia’ backed by MSPs could lead to the “return of a blasphemy law”, the National Secular Society and other human rights campaigners have warned.

Six MSPs from Alba and the Scottish National Party have backed a motion in the Scottish Parliament supporting a report from the Gandhian Peace Society. The motion was submitted by Alba MSP Ash Regan.

The report calls for “strengthened hate crime legislation that addresses explicitly religious-based crimes, ensuring robust penalties for those involved in hate crimes against Hindus”.

But in a joint letter to the MSPs, campaigners have said the recommendations could threaten free speech because the report conflates “criticism of caste-based inequality and majoritarian political ideologies with hatred of Hindus”.

This could include restricting the freedom to criticise politicised Hindu nationalism and discrimination against people members of oppressed castes, they said.

The letter, co-ordinated by the National Secular Society and signed by several other campaigners against caste discrimination, calls for the MSPs to withdraw their support from the motion.

People of all religions and beliefs, including Hindus, are protected from discrimination and hate crime via the Equality Act 2010 and the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. The latter includes free speech protections which ensure expressions of “antipathy, dislike, ridicule or insult towards” religion are not considered hate crimes in themselves.

The letter’s signatories include Santosh Dass,Chair of the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance; Dr Elizabeth Joy, Director of Dalit Solidarity Network UK; Sat Pal Muman, chair of Caste Watch UK; India Labour Solidarity; and Professor Meena Dhanda, an expert in caste discrimination from the University of Wolverhampton.

Report says university lecturer who used “offensive” terms for Hindu gods is example of “hate crime”

The report includes a list of incidents which the Gandhian Peace Society considers to be “hate crimes” against Hindus.

This story was originally published in secularism.org.uk. Read the full story here.