A man who burned a Koran (Quran) outside the Turkish consulate in London was on Monday found guilty by a district court on charges of a religiously aggravated public order offence.
The accused, identified as 50-year-old Hamit Coskun, on February 13 shouted “Islam is religion of terrorism” and “Koran is burning” as he set the religious book on fire, reported news agency AFP.
District Judge John McGarva at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court found Coskun guilty of using disorderly behaviour “within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress”.
Coskun was motivated by “hostility towards members of a religious group, namely followers of Islam”, said McGarva.
The court has issued a fine of £240 ($325), with a statutory surcharge of £96, on Coskun.
“Your actions in burning the Koran where you did were highly provocative, and your actions were accompanied by bad language in some cases directed toward the religion and were motivated at least in part by hatred of followers of the religion,” said the judge, according to AFPreport.
Turkish-born Coskun, who is currently seeking asylum in the United Kingdom, had denied the charge and posted on social media that he was protesting against the “Islamist government” of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
During the case hearing, state prosecutors insisted Coskun was not being prosecuted for burning the book.
“He is being prosecuted for his disorderly behaviour in public,” said Philip McGhee, for the Crown Prosecution Service, according to the AFP report.
The judge also said: “Burning a religious book, although offensive, to some is not necessarily disorderly,” according to a Reuters report.
“What made his conduct disorderly was the timing and location of the conduct and that all this was accompanied by abusive language. There was no need for him to use the ‘F word’ and direct it towards Islam,” McGarva added.
Prosecuted for Blasphemy
Coskun’s legal fees were paid by the Free Speech Union (FSU) and the National Secular Society, which argued he was essentially being prosecuted for blasphemy, despite Britain’s free-speech guarantees.
In reaction to the court judgement, the main opposition Conservative Party said on X: “Britain has no blasphemy laws. Yet this verdict creates one de facto.”
“Parliament never voted for it. The British people do not want it. This decision is wrong,” it added.