UK Police Visit Priest to Discuss Views on Radical Muslims
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
October 17, 2007 9:00AM EST

By Kevin McCandless
CNSNews.com Correspondent
October 17, 2007

London (CNSNews.com) - As new hate crime laws take effect in England, it's been reported that police recently questioned a Catholic priest following a complaint arising from his views on Muslim radicals.

Father John Hayes was visited by detectives in his London church last month after someone complained about comments he wrote in a parish bulletin a year ago.

Hayes wrote about a Muslim teenager who lost a legal battle to wear religious attire to school. After hearing a radio interview with the young woman, the priest commented to parishioners that it "will be difficult, if not impossible, to have dialogue with radical Muslims."

He also referred indirectly to a contemporaneous row over the wearing of crucifixes in the workplace and attributed the situation to "extremist immigrants who think the whole world should revolve around them and seemingly are hell-bent on destroying everything that is sacred in our Christian country."

Hayes told London's Daily Mail that detectives had asked him whether he was trying to "incite racial hatred," which is a crime in Britain.

After an hour-long discussion, which Hayes described as "civilized," the officers left, declaring the matter closed.

Hayes declined to comment on Tuesday but the Metropolitan Police Service provided a brief statement confirming many of the details.

The statement said that a complaint had been lodged in July over "alleged comments made in a parish newsletter" dated October 2006.

In following up the complaint, officers talked to "a 71-year-old man who is alleged to have written the comment" and had what was described as an "amicable discussion."

"All parties concerned were fully involved and appraised," Police Commander Sultan Taylor said in the statement. "There are no further issues outstanding regarding this matter."

A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Brentwood, in which the church is located, said the diocese was not concerned about the incident.

A controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Act goes into effect throughout England and Wales this month.

Although it has long been illegal to incite racial hatred in Britain, the new law criminalizes the use of threatening words or behavior intended to incite hatred against groups defined not by race, but by religious belief or lack of belief.

"This Act closes this small but important gap in the law against extremists who stir up hatred in our communities," Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said earlier this month. "To be attacked or targeted because of your race or religion is wholly unacceptable."

Anyone convicted under the new laws faces a seven-year prison term and an unlimited fine.

During the lengthy campaign to get the measure passed, civil liberty groups charged that the new law would stifle free speech and lead to an atmosphere of enforced "political correctness" where even jokes could become a matter for police.

Government ministers denied this, pointing to wording in the law that said it was not intended to restrict "discussion, criticism or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions."

As a result, they said, the threshold of proof required for a religious hatred offense is even higher than the requirement under the older racial hatred law.

In an earlier analysis, the London law firm of Farrer and Company concluded that enforcement of the new laws will depend on the prevailing social climate and how judges interpret what "hatred" is.

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