Rejected petition Criticism of RELIGION must not be criminalised in a secular state.
In a secular society all religions must accept that their worldview will be examined and criticised in open dialogue and debate. This government must make a commitment to protect free speech as regards a citizen's right within a secular society to examine and criticise any religion or ideology.
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This petition is needed because the government is set on a course of action that could by default censor the British public's ability to openly examine or criticise a religion. This governement is creating a council that would draw up an official definition of ‘Islamophobia’ of which the next step would be the potential to impose a blasphemy law. A secular society cannot allow critique of a religion to be branded as hate speech or racism. The government must protect free speech, not censor it.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.
The Government have said that they are not going to introduce blasphemy laws:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2024-12-18/debates/ba455fa1-fb15-4e1b-b4c9-884dfdaeb83e/CommonsChamber#contribution-76ACDC1C-F8FF-4664-AA99-BE235577FE72
It is therefore unclear what further action you would like the Government or Parliament to take.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.