Abstract

This article identifies that hate crime involving religious hatred is increasing at an unprecedented rate in the United Kingdom (UK) but successful prosecution for incitement to religious hatred is virtually impossible.1 It identifies the internet and anti-Muslim social media personalities as a reason for this increase and S.29J of the Public Order Act 1986 as the reason they can incite religious hatred without retribution. Using far-right social media personality Tommy Robinson as a medium, it evidences that actions of the far-right merit at least a realistic chance of prosecution. It identifies that to do this, freedom of speech needs to be limited and proposes this is lawful as per Article 10.2 of the ECHR; for public safety, national security, preventing disorder or crime and protecting other people's reputation or rights. It demonstrates that central arguments for the inclusion of S.29J namely that satire, discussion and criticism of religion would be an offence without it are unfounded and the justification that religion and race are separate entities is flawed. It concludes that S.29J should be revisited as limitation of the freedom of hate speech is lawful, justified and required.