There's a very good piece by Tom Baldwin today in The Times arguing in favour of the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill. It's well worth a read, because it makes an - almost - convincing case for it.

There is, however, one fundamental flaw with the bill. Should it be enacted, one of the first actions ought, on the face of it, to be brought against the Koran.

The Koran is damning in its view of Jews. It accuses Jews of “falsehood" (Sura 3:71) and “distortion” (Sura 4:46). It says they have been cursed by Allah, as well as by David and Jesus (Sura 2:61/58, Sura 5:78/82). And it says that Allah was so disgusted with Jews that he transformed them into apes and pigs, "despised and rejected". (Sura 5:60/65, 2:65 and 7:166).

Such quotes have lead directly to the murder of Jews. As Hamas puts it, in justifying its murder of Jews:

"Allah did not mete out the punishment of transformation on any nation except the Jews. The significance of it is actual change in the appearance of the Jew and perfect transformation from human to bestial condition... from human appearance to the form of genuine apes, pigs, mice, and lizards..." (Falastin Al-Muslima, September 1996, series of articles by Ibrahim Al-'Ali, pp. 54-55.)

"The Jews...are the brothers of monkeys and pigs...Allah has warned us against their evil and their arrogance, and has said: 'You will find that the most brazen among mankind, with hatred towards the believers, are the Jews and the Idolaters.' [Koran, 81,5]...The Jews are Jews, and we are forbidden to forget their character traits even for a moment, even for a blink of an eye. O Servants of Allah! The Jews are those who tried to murder your Prophet in order to expunge the call (to Islam)....Prayer and blessing to the Imam of the Jihad fighters, Mohammed, who waged a Jihad against the Jews...The Jews...are Idolaters, heretics, whose faith is false."

Maybe supporters of the bill do indeed think that the Koran should be banned. I find such anti-semitism disgusting, but I cannot imagine a more provocative and counter-productive - and plain stupid - act than prosecuting distributors of the Koran for inciting religious hatred. Yet if the bill is to mean anything at all, that is what should happen.

Such anti-semitic words can, of course, be dealt with by the existing racial hatred laws. All of which merely goes to show how confused the existing regime is; it certainly doesn't mean that we should add another complication to an already ill-thought through situation.

Yet another reason why this bill is plain wrong.