Law and Lawyers: The government's Islamophobia working group

29 July 2025

The government's Islamophobia working group

With Addition 21 October 2025

The UK government has set up a working group on Anti-Muslim Hatred / Islamophobia Definition. The terms of reference are HERE. The group has five members and is chaired by former Attorney General Dominic Grieve KC.

The working group is to advise the

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and
Local Government 'on appropriate and sensitive language to describe, understand and define
unacceptable treatment, prejudice, discrimination and hate targeting Muslims or anyone who
is perceived to be Muslim.'

The group's definition is to be 'non-statutory' but will 'provide the government and
other relevant bodies with an understanding of unacceptable treatment and prejudice against
Muslim communities.'

Further, 'Any proposed definition must be compatible with the unchanging right of British citizens to
exercise freedom of speech and expression - which includes the right to criticise, express
dislike of, or insult religions and/or the beliefs and practices of adherents.'

'The Group will make evidence-based recommendations for Ministers to consider. All advice
provided by the Group will be private for Ministers and will not be made public.'

House of Commons 14 July 2025

On 14 July 2025, Mr Kevin Hollinrake MP (Conservative, Thirsk and Malton) asked the government to commit to making the working group's full report publicly available. Angel Rayner MP (Deputy Prime Minister) made no such commitment. (Hansard 14 July).

Rayner offered no explanation for the non-publication even though any definition accepted by government is then likely to be adopted by many public bodies. In a parliamentary democracy, transparency is crucial and non-publication ought to be justified. Further, any proposed definition ought to be properly debated by Parliament.

A new Blasphemy law by the backdoor?

On 18 July 2025, Anglican Mainstream published - We must not allow a blasphemy law to come in by the back door.

The Free Speech Union has published - Banning Islamophobia: Blasphemy law by the Backdoor.

Blasphemy and blasphemous libel were ill-defined offences at common law. They were abolished by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 section 79.

Blasphemy was an indictable offence consisting in a publication of contemptuous, reviling, scurrilous or ludicrous matter relating to God, Jesus Christ, the Bible or the formularies of the Church of England. The publisher had to intend to publish, but he did not need to intend that the words amount to blasphemy. It was immaterial whether the words were spoken or written; but, if written, they constituted blasphemous
libel. The offence was punishable by fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.

House of Commons briefing 9 May 2008 - The Abolition of the Blasphemy Offences. The briefing set out the law of blasphemy and the arguments concerning its abolition.

Hate Crime

English criminal law has plenty of offences coming under the general description of "Hate Crime." - se, for example, Crown Prosecution Service (3 March 2022) - Racist and Religious Hate Crime - Prosecution Guidance.

The Crown Prosecution Service publication - Hate Crime - notes that any offence can be prosecuted as a hate crime if the offender has either: demonstrated hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity Or been motivated by hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity.

Letter from a group of peers to Dominic Grieve

A cross-party group of House of Lords members wrote to Dominic Grieve expressing concerns about the working group and any proposed new definition - see Letter 14 July 2025. The letter states -

'Our principal concern is that if your Working Group comes up with a definition and it is taken
up by the government it will have a chilling effect on free speech and exacerbate community
tensions. We respectfully urge you to advise the government that it would be unwise for the
state to adopt an official definition of ‘Islamophobia/Anti-Muslim Hatred’, an option you said
your group was considering.'

The letter was considered by the Committee for Academic Freedom - Peers warn that academics could be punished for breaching Labour's new Islamophobia definition. They comment that -

'A spokesperson from Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s department, said that the Government is “absolutely committed to defending freedom of speech, and any proposed definition must be compatible with the right to freedom of speech and expression”. This is incoherent. If the Government is really committed to the cause of free speech, it should disband the Islamophobia working group and bin any recommendations already made. At the very least, it should publish any recommendations it receives from the group and invite public criticism of it before even considering implementing them.'