Shami Chakrabati, director of the civil liberties organisation Liberty, explains:
“When you have someone such as Nick Griffin, the BNP chairman, saying ‘Islam is a vicious wicked faith’, if you take the emotion out, it’s essentially someone having a pop at a religion which they have a right to do…. Liberty is unequivocal in its opposition to the legislation on incitement to religious hatred. That means by definition defending all sorts of people, including possibly Nick Griffin. We are against an over-broad speech offence. We may be protecting Griffin, but we are also protecting the vulnerable minority communities.”
Make sense of that if you can. Liberty supports Griffin’s right to incite hatred against Muslims … but by doing so they are “protecting vulnerable minority communities”.