Scottish Christians are waiting to find out how they will be impacted by Holyrood’s controversial Hate Crime and Public Order Act – as last minute efforts to halt it continued while en went to press.
The new law, scheduled to take effect from 1 April, ‘creates a new crime of stirring up hatred against any of the protected groups covered by the Bill’ – including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Scottish Parliament website.
And it warns: ‘Crimes motivated by prejudice will be treated more seriously and will not be tolerated by society.’ The new legislation also abolishes the offence of blasphemy.
Meanwhile, the ‘Free to Disagree’ campaign group – which includes the Christian Institute, National Secular Society, Peter Tatchell Foundation and Adam Smith Institute, was continuing final efforts to get the law halted.
Scotland’s First Minister, Humza Yousaf, has said: ‘To those who think they may accidentally somehow fall foul of the law … because they believe an adult man cannot become a female … or those that proselytise that same-sex relationships are sinful, none of these people would fall foul of the stirring up of hatred offence for solely stating their belief – even if they did so in a robust manner.’
However, the law has been severely criticised by both Christians and non-Christians. ADF International (a subsidiary of the US-based Christian legal advocacy group, the Alliance Defending Freedom), says: ‘Critics have raised concerns about the “vague” nature of the legislation – which bans speech construed to be “stirring up hatred” – with a potential punishment of up to seven years imprisonment. The wide-ranging and subjective speech prohibition covers private conversations, even within the home. Many across the political spectrum have united in condemnation of the Act.’ Its executive director, British solicitor Paul Coleman, said the ongoing prosecution of Christian Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen (en, March) – who is now facing proceedings at the country’s Supreme Court for calling homosexual practice a sin – might now be replicated in Scotland. He said Räsänen’s case was ‘a canary in the coalmine for what happens when we roll out laws which ban the vague and nebulous concept of “hate speech”, which can be interpreted as a right to censor any thought or opinion which lies outside of state approval.’
Writing in The Spectator, former BBC presenter and political commentator Iain Macwhirter said: ‘The Scottish government’s definition of “stirring up hatred” is so vague that ministers have given up trying to explain it. They just refer you to the Police Scotland website where a hate crime is defined as “any crime which is understood by the victim or any other person as being motivated, wholly or partly by malice or ill will towards a social group’.”
David Kennedy, the Scottish Police Federation’s general secretary, said the Bill was ‘a recipe for disaster’.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh, has already vowed to defy the new law. Writing on X (formerly Twitter), she said: ‘If you genuinely imagine I’d delete posts calling a man a man, so as not to be prosecuted under this ludicrous law, stand by for the mother of all April Fools’ jokes.’
