Remembrance Day Respect vs Liberty Poll - which is more dangerous to society?

[NotAllThere]

...In the same way, burning poppies in an attempt to inspire hatred of Christians or white people would be illegal. Burning poppies to inspire hatred of "the West" wouldn't be illegal because that's neither a race or a religion...

But the poppy burners consider "the West" to be synonymous with Christianity, so it would be illegal.

[Old Greg]

That doesn't make it illegal to burn the Qur'an (or the Bible or the Torah or any other religious text).

What it does is make it illegal to do something which inspires racial and religious hatred. So, if you burned the Qur'an in an attempt to inspire religious hatred, then that would be illegal.

In the same way, burning poppies in an attempt to inspire hatred of Christians or white people would be illegal. Burning poppies to inspire hatred of "the West" wouldn't be illegal because that's neither a race or a religion.

IIRC, the law was introduced because there was a gap in existing legislation. You could be prosecuted for inspiring racial hatred against (e.g.) Arabs because they were legally classed as a race, but not against Jews because they were defined as a religion rather than a race.

No, Jews, Sikhs and Romany Gypsies are specifically included as ethnic groups even though they may not be 'racially' distinct.

The problem that the ill-advised religious hatred legislation attempts to address is the far right's move from being anti-black, anti-Jewish and anti-Asian to picking on Muslims as a cover for their racism.

[d000hg]

But the poppy burners consider "the West" to be synonymous with Christianity, so it would be illegal.

But they're wrong. So if you do something with the intention of it being an illegal act, but it turns out you're just annoying people for non-illegal reasons, now what?!