Free Speech Activists Wade Into Teenage Quran Row Treated as a ‘Hate Incident’ by Police

A police officer using a radio in the UK on Nov. 2, 2011. (David Cheskin/PA Media)

The Free Speech Union has called on police to drop a “hate incident” record after a pupil caused “slight damage” to a copy of the Quran when it fell on the floor in a school.

Last Wednesday, the BBC reported that four pupils were suspended from a West Yorkshire secondary school after an accusation that ‘slight damage’ in the form of a smudged page was caused to a copy of the Quran.

West Yorkshire Police became involved after a Year 10 boy, who is believed to be autistic, brought a copy of Islam’s holy book to Wakefield’s Kettlethorpe High School.

Kettlethorpe Headteacher Tudor Griffiths said in a statement at the time: “We would like to reassure all our community that the holy book remains fully intact and that our initial enquiries indicate there was no malicious intent by those involved.”

‘Chill Public Debate’

At a subsequent meeting at the local Jamia Masjid Swafia mosque called to address the incident, the boy’s mother pleaded her son’s case to a panel that included imans, Tudor Griffiths and Inspector Andy Thornton, who confirmed that the students’ treatment of the book has been recorded as a hate incident.

The Free Speech Union (FSU) said in a post on Twitter that it was “hard pressed to imagine a sequence of events more likely to chill public debate and freedom of expression than recording this episode as a ‘hate incident’ and attaching that data to the children’s records, in spite of the absence of any malicious intent.”

The FSU supports self-styled defenders of free expression in England and Scotland.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman told The Epoch Times by email that no hate crime has been recorded, but that a “hate incident” has been recorded.

British police encourage the public to report non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), described as “any non-crime incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice,” on official hate crime sites.

In 2021, a top court ruled that The College of Policing’s (CoP) guidance on recording NCHIs violated former policeman Harry Miller’s freedom of expression as set out in Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The updated guidance from CoP now says that NCHIs “should not be recorded where they are trivial, irrational, or if there is no basis to conclude that an incident was motivated by hostility.”

Death Threats

In a letter addressed to Inspector Andy Thornton, FSU General Secretary Toby Young wrote: “We are deeply concerned by the official response to the troubling events at Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield, following an accusation that a Year 10 pupil caused ‘slight damage’ to a copy of the Quran.”

“We understand that this has resulted in death threats being made against the pupil in question, and that no police action is to be taken against those who have made these threats after the mother of the pupil who received them was visibly placed under pressure not to pursue the matter at an event held at a local mosque,” he added.

Young noted that at that event, Thornton stated that this minor damage to the pupil’s private property was being treated as a hate incident despite an investigation by the school having concluded that there was “no malicious intent” behind the minor damage to one page of this book.

“We know from dealing with other cases, that when the police conclude a ‘non-crime hate incident’ has been committed by an individual or group of individuals, that information is kept on file and can show up when an enhanced criminal records check is shown up,” said Young.

Former police officer Harry Miller speaks to the media outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Dec. 20, 2021. (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Miller co-founded Fair Cop was set up in response to what it calls “Big Brother” overreach of various police forces and other authorities in England.

Miller told The Epoch Times that he believed the incident was “backdoor sharia.”

“It was a public humiliation, wasn’t it? They did everything short of putting them in stocks and pelting them with tomatoes, and the fact there was a chief inspector there endorsing it is something that is sickening,” he added.

“We have backdoor sharia, it’s as simple as that,” said Miller.

He said that the potential issuing of NCHI shows “absolute contempt by West Yorkshire police for the court and the public, it shows absolute obedience to sharia.”

Hate Incident

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman told The Epoch Times by email: “We are aware of local and national concerns following an incident at Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield last week.

“Police were made aware on the evening of Thursday, 23 February, of an incident that had occurred at the school earlier that day. Initial enquiries confirmed that minor damage was caused to a religious text. We have recorded a hate incident, but from our enquiries are satisfied that no criminal offences were committed,” he said.

“A report was also made of a malicious communications offence in relation to threats being made to a child in connection with this incident. A suspect was identified, who was also a child, and they were given words of advice by an officer,” he added.

“We are continuing to liaise with the school and our neighbourhood officers are conducting additional reassurance patrols in the area,” said the spokesman.