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A man who set fire to a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London was found guilty of committing a religiously aggravated public order offence yesterday, Reuters reported.
Hamit Coskun, 50, was fined £240 ($325) at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court after being convicted of being disorderly by shouting “F*** Islam” as he held aloft the burning book near the consulate in central London in February.
The lawyer for Coskun, whose father was Kurdish and his mother Armenian and who lived in central England, had argued that the prosecution amounted to an attempt to bring back a blasphemy law that was abolished in England in 2008.
Coskun had denied the charge and said on social media he was carrying out a protest against the Turkish government. While he was holding the book aloft, he was attacked by a man with a knife who kicked and spat at him.
“Burning a religious book, although offensive, to some is not necessarily disorderly,” said Judge John McGarva.
“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.”