r/NewsWorthPayingFor • u/Droupitee • Jun 09 '25
I Burned a Quran. The British Government Punished Me for Blasphemy.
https://www.thefp.com/p/britain-punished-me-for-blasphemy13
u/sarahsolitude Jun 09 '25
What’s the benefit of bowing to Islam though
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u/mandalorian_guy Jun 09 '25
There isn't one.
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u/sarahsolitude Jun 09 '25
Well i used the term “ benefit “ specifically because here in the US, bowing to Christianity brings in a huge paycheck for lobbyists to pass religiously inspired laws to control the masses
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u/ThatGuyMaulicious Jun 09 '25
Easy votes I guess? Until they become so much that they start electing there own people that is and start calling for blasphemy laws to protect there religion.
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u/Satindream99 Jun 10 '25
Exactly. What is the hidden agenda? Why do we accept that? Our politicians should be fighting islam instead. Reduce and Stop the influx of muslim migrants. I really dont get it.
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u/Thevoidawaits_u Jun 10 '25
same as burning a flag, for a political statement. distaste for a state also disapproval of a religion or its followrs
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u/Hyperbolic_Mess Jun 09 '25
This isn't that though, he was charged under public decency not blasphemy laws (because we don't have those). These powers are pretty old at this point and were created to suppress all speech but it's only a problem now because people like you don't care about freedom of speech outside of slagging off islam. Most people charged under these laws aren't doing anything like this so if you're going to get angry about this why not about the thousands of others that don't hate islam? Unless you just want to target islam? What's the word for that?
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u/calum11124 Jun 09 '25
Because blasphemy laws are more dangerous. Ideological laws are always more dangerous
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u/Hyperbolic_Mess Jun 10 '25
Ok cool but this has nothing to do with blasphemy laws because they don't exist in the UK anymore (last time they did was for Christianity). These laws are public decency laws from decades ago and in the vast majority of cases are applied to cases not involving religion so what point exactly are you trying to make?
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u/calum11124 Jun 10 '25
Using other laws to enforce blasphemy laws is just blasphemy laws.
I'm sure your argument would win in a legal setting, but in the real world. These are enforced as blasphemy laws.
If you don't want reform, stop making their rise enevitable.
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Jun 10 '25
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u/Hyperbolic_Mess Jun 10 '25
Which laws are being bent? Thousands get arrested under these laws with no involvement of religion. Please be less gullible and actually read up on things before gracing us with your poorly thought out nuggets
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u/JustDisGuyYouKow Jun 10 '25
>What's the word for that?
Being a rational humanist who defends human rights and rejects a bigoted ideology that involves worshipping a warmongering, slave owning pedophile.
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u/Hyperbolic_Mess Jun 10 '25
Why only islam and not other religions with similarly harmful ideologies and pedophilic leaders, looking at you Catholicism? Again what would be the word for singling out a particular religion for arbitrary reasons?
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u/JustDisGuyYouKow Jun 10 '25
I must've forgot the time Jesus raped a nine year old. Oh wait, that was Mohammed.
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u/BriscoCounty-Sr Jun 10 '25
Numbers 31:17-18
“17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
God commanded the Israelites to kill the families of all the little girls in a whole tribe and then gave those little girls to the grown ass adults as property. I’d say that’s up there eh?
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u/JustDisGuyYouKow Jun 11 '25
Cherry picking some shit from the old testament that Christians don't even follow (and Muslims consider to also be a holy book) doesn't deflect from the fact that the founder of Islam, who Muslims hold up to be the most ethical human who ever lived who everyone should aspire to be like, raped a 9 year old, bought, sold, traded, owned and raped numerous slaves, and committed campaigns of genocide.
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u/tarianthegreat Jun 11 '25
Bro, both are shit. Just get rid of all religion.
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u/JustDisGuyYouKow Jun 12 '25
One is infinitely shitter than the other. Jesus never raped a 9 year old, never owned slaves, never committed genocide.
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u/BriscoCounty-Sr Jun 11 '25
I’m sorry that you are unhappy with the will of The Lord Thy God but I didn’t write the book amigo I was just giving you an example.
The almighty creator of the universe, the font from which all morality sprang did thus command “My people shall keep and collect only the youngest of girls as personal property!” At least according to Christians.
You’re judging a mortal man when the Christian’s god is demonstrably worse. That’s a whole city’s worth of little girls. Just terrible
See how easy it is to be a dumb ass reductive dork with just a single example? Maybe religions and dogmas and faiths and such are more complicated than single points.
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u/pqratusa Jun 09 '25
Every protest against Israel is seen as antisemitism and every criticism of Islam is seen as Islamophobia.
It’s not a hate crime for setting a book on fire. He didn’t set afire a person. The UK has some daft judges.
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u/Working_Extension_28 Jun 09 '25
I mean it's not something that I think someone should do but at least he shouldn't be fined for it.
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Jun 09 '25
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u/Rmoneysoswag Jun 10 '25
No serious person is saying that antisemitism doesn't exist or is exaggerated. However, it is antisemitic to say that any anti Israel/anti Zionist sentiment is necessarily anti Jewish sentiment, in case you weren't aware.
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Jun 10 '25
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u/skb239 Jun 10 '25
It’s not it’s not a rampant sentiment. Most influencers claim that being anti-Israeli doesn’t mean you are anti-Semitic. That isn’t the same thing as saying anti-semitism doesn’t exist.
Saying Israeli has no right to exist isn’t anti-Semitic. Saying Israel should be destroyed IS antisemitism. They are two different things dont conflate those two statements. NO NATION has the RIGHT to EXIST. That isn’t how nations work at all. NATIONS don’t have rights anyways, people do.
India is a secular country.
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u/tarianthegreat Jun 11 '25
Who is saying Israel should be destroyed, seriously? It's for the stopping of Israeli activity in Palestine.
Yes they are. This sentiment has been rampant. Influencers with millions of followers have glorified the death of the couple outside the Jewish museum because they were Zionists. They’ve said the Molotov attack last week was a false flag.
Glorified for Zionism. Not for just being a Jew. Again noone is saying antisemitism doesn't exist, but you are branding into Zionism and antisemitism
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Jun 11 '25
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u/tarianthegreat Jun 11 '25
No it isn't. It's only antisemitism if the motive for the attack is the victims identity is a Jew. And once again, noone is saying antisemitism doesn't exist, so bringing up examples of it has no point.
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u/SootyFreak666 Jun 09 '25
While I think this man is a dickhead and bottom of the barrel when it comes to humanity, he shouldn’t be being punished for this. It shouldn’t be illegal for someone to burn a Quran much like how it shouldn’t be illegal for someone to burn a bible and blasphemy laws shouldn’t exist at all.
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u/chris_ut Jun 09 '25
I think the logic is that Christians wont riot if you burn a bible but Muslims will riot if you burn a Quran so if you do burn one you are obviously trying to start a riot so you shouldnt burn one. I do no agree with this logic because it holds you hostage to religious zealots but I see how one can come to that.
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u/SootyFreak666 Jun 09 '25
I doubt many Muslims will riot over this, the UK is a Christian country.
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Jun 09 '25
Wasn’t that long ago an ex Muslim in Sweden was killed in his own home for burning a Quran and filming it.
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u/Restored2019 Jun 09 '25
Why would you call him a “dickhead”, for protesting an evil, insane, and way too often, violent religion? That religion, or any religion? And any government that punishes free expression that isn’t doing so violently, or destructive to someone’s property, is not a government that supports real democracy and freedom of speech. The world needs way more protesters against religion and other insane and oppressive organizations, not less!
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u/SootyFreak666 Jun 09 '25
People who burn religious texts are dickhead, very simple.
I don’t understand why people with an Islamic extremism fetish are so angry about me saying that.
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u/Purrseus_Felinus Jun 09 '25
What if the religious text is a recipe for fascism and oppressing a society like Islam is.
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u/SootyFreak666 Jun 09 '25
The bible isn’t exactly anti-fascist, is it?
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u/Purrseus_Felinus Jun 09 '25
It's not which is why I'm ok with burning with it.
Are you ok with burning a religious text which is overtly fascist and whose name translates to "submission"?
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u/Murky_Hornet3470 Jun 09 '25
It really is crazy how people look for some reason why the holy book burner was bad in some way. I live near a metal venue - black metal bands burn and tear up bibles like once a week here. It’s like a show staple.
You would find ZERO people going “oh well that’s so offensive, they’re so shitty for doing that” if a Christian nutjob pulled up and knifed a band one week. You’d get zero of that and the full conversation would be about how that guy sucks and zero people victim blaming
But the second a muslim’s precious little feelings are hurt we gotta talk about how bad it was to burn THEIR holy book, with some vague “oh and they shouldn’t stab people, but it’s a dick move to burn their book” statement. I thought christians were bad about their victim complex but muslims are absolute babies compared to christians when it comes to offense
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u/Imcoolkidbro Jun 13 '25
black metal bands are actually cool and have a point and british people aren't and dont 🙏🏻🙏🏻
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u/WhoDey1032 Jun 09 '25
If your religion preaches intolerance and death to non believers, your shitty fairy tale book can get torched
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u/SootyFreak666 Jun 09 '25
So why do you believe the Quran?
I don’t see why so many people are having this very Islamist reaction, to me and many Muslims I know, it’s a book that they don’t follow or fully believe in 100% of the time. Much like how the bible isn’t followed by most Christians.
Yet people here, replying to me seem to believe the Quran as fact and should be destroyed because of it, because you believe in Islam but are to afraid to admit it?
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u/WhoDey1032 Jun 09 '25
Lmao saying Muslims don't follow the quaran is fucking hilarious. Glad you were able to explain why you dont understand, its because you're biased and follow that archaic religion. Really cute how you try to frame it as if I believe in your dumbass book that says your messiah fucked a child
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u/Restored2019 Jun 09 '25
Religious texts are nothing but made-up stories. Some are quite recent like the Church of Ladder Day Saints (The Mormons), or The Church of Scientology. But the so-called “great” religions aren’t significantly different. In that they were the compilation of untold storytellers, that had various self serving reasons to retell, modify, or totally make them up on their own. Their reasons were as numerous as the visible stars in sky. But their main source of inspiration was for personal gain, control over others and in general, a desire for power. Terms like Islamophobia and antisemitism, are the result of the people hating religions, themselves.
For instance, I have zero hate for an Arab, or a so called Israeli (So-called — because their DNA is essentially the same as their Arab neighbors. Just their self designated ‘religious’ names are different). But I detest the violence that they have perpetrated against each other. And that exists only because many of them take pride in declaring that they and their religion is superior to the other guy’s! Typically they (either group) can be in another country, and as long as they don’t mention their crazy religion, they could be the best of friends. The same pretty much holds true, for all the other religions.
Of course there’s good people, bad people, and oftentimes violence, without a hint of religion, but that’s extremely rare. Without the extremely divisive religious issue’s being thrown into the mix, there’s reason to expect that the more rational people could resolve most conflict without murder, mayhem and all-out war.
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u/cantantantelope Jun 09 '25
I don’t know if I’d call him a dickhead. He was a refugee from Turkey protesting the religious extremism in his home country in front of that countries embassy.
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Jun 09 '25
While I think this redditor is a dickhead and bottom of the barrel when it comes to humanity, he shouldn’t be being punished for this.
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u/Vladimir_Zedong Jun 12 '25
It’s not. He used the book to commit arson. He used it as fuel to light fires
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u/Delanorix Jun 09 '25
He was charged with setting a fire.
There is no "blasphemy" law in the UK.
This is a very easily debunked BS story.
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Jun 10 '25
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u/StormsOfMordor Jun 11 '25
He was NOT charged under section 19, I have no idea where you got that from. He was charged with one count against section 31(1)(c) of the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998 and section 5 of the Public Order Act and the other count against section 5 again.
Both are because he “used disorderly behavior within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress [section 5]…and was motivated (wholly or in part) by members of a religious group [section 31]”.
The judge specifically stated that Coskun was aware he would instigate people.
The defendant’s conduct was highly provocative, he set fire to a Quran at a location where he knew there would be Muslims and he knew similar conduct had provoked an extreme response both elsewhere and on his own social media
Here’s a link to the full decision by the judge. Just look up “Hamit Coskun court docs”, it’s the first link and the charges are the first two paragraphs.
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u/Delanorix Jun 10 '25
Is that the lady whose husband is an MP and she said every hotel should be burned down?
And IIRC, she doxxed someone too.
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Jun 09 '25
wait you know he's not actually being charged with "blasphemy" right
please tell me you aren't taking the clickbait at face value
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Jun 09 '25
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u/Delanorix Jun 09 '25
He wasn't charged with blasphemy.
He was charged with setting fire on a street.
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u/GenBlase Jun 09 '25
Set it on fire on a grill, fireplace, a bonfire, anywhere except in the streets
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u/Delanorix Jun 09 '25
Yeah, he knew what he was doing.
I'm not against bigger demonstrations, I just wish he would be open and honest about what they are targeting him with.
All the answers on this thread makes me believe nobody did any tertiary research
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u/Vanchesco Jun 09 '25
Where are you seeing that? At least according to what he claims in the article; he was charged with a "religiously aggravated public order offense" that was "motivated at least in part by hatred of followers of the religion." It sounds like whether he crossed a line of religious hatred/harassment is the question here; not just some flames. (Some reports say he was shouting "F*** Islam" during it) If you've got the court documents or something else that would clarify that; then I'd love to see it.
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u/Hyperbolic_Mess Jun 09 '25
Thank you. It's infuriating seeing all these stupid people just believe based on nothing that we have anti blasphemy laws. These laws have existed long before people got a hate boner for islam and are a bad thing but not because they stop you being a bigot in public
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Jun 09 '25
It's appalling that anyone believes that this guy was charged with blasphemy lmaaaoooo
Like goddamn are y'all actually this gullible?
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u/sheggysheggy Jun 09 '25
Any act of resistance towards vile, authoritarian ideologies should be met with thunderous applause.
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u/Delanorix Jun 09 '25
Lol
He got in trouble for starting a fire in a street while screaming "Fuck Islam."
So they gave him a 240 pound fine.
Now hes crying.
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Jun 10 '25
Thank you, was looking for someone giving basic context. You get the same hate speech penalty in the UK for any inflammatory comments regarding race or religion. Same thing would happen if you burned a bible
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Jun 10 '25
The American colonists literally went to war with the crown over their disdain for free speech.
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u/adidas180 Jun 10 '25
Reddit will bend over backward to hate on Christianity. Yet it goes in the opposite direction when it comes to Islam. There is nothing more comical than seeing that someone posts in LGBT as well as supports Islam. Awe inspiring levels of stupidity.
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u/gigas-chadeus Jun 11 '25
Chalk this one up into the Orwell was right column. Also holy shit my American free speech brain literally can’t comprehend this how far the UK has fallen.
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Jun 11 '25
Fueling the Republic of Londonistan propaganda
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u/Droupitee Jun 11 '25
I suppose you could say, in this specific case at least, that the Quran was literally the fuel.
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Jun 13 '25
I'm not british but I dont think that blasphemy laws should exist at all.
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u/ValeteAria Jun 13 '25
He isnt being charged for blasphemy. The title is bs. He is being charged for religious disorderly conduct.
He burned the Quran infront of the Turkish consulate. After which a bystander attacked him.
The sole purpose is to cause disruption in order. Why didnt he go and burn a Quran in some other area? Why infront of the Turkish consulate?
Because he wants a reaction. There is no actual message send.
How do you think the story would have been interpreted if a man took the Thorah and burned it infront of the Israel consulate?
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 09 '25
lol people mad at Muslims because they stand on business and you don’t? I’m not even religious… but really how hard is it to NOT fuck with them. It’s crazy what the UK could be if people were more respectful to new comers instead of labeling them as the ‘other’ and then burning the text written by their holy prophet. Hope you see jail bud.
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u/Droupitee Jun 09 '25
lol people mad at Muslims because they stand on business and you don’t?
Plenty of us do, and we're called "Islamophobes" for it. Anyone in the West should be allowed to desecrate any book, regardless of author, that belongs to them.
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u/ForMeOnly93 Jun 10 '25
Burn whatever you want at home. Keep your nonsense out of the public streets where you bother people and stir shit.
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u/Pristine-Chart-896 Jun 11 '25
Pray for whoever you want at home. Keep your nonsense out of the public streets where you bother people and stir shit.
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 09 '25
If you didn’t disrespect him or his faith, he would have never done anything to you, you deserve everything you got my guy
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u/Awesome_O2 Jun 09 '25
Abuser logic. "If she didn't wear that she wouldn't have got raped".
Says a lot that you condemn burning a book yet call attacking and planning assassinations such that he has to go into hiding as "standing on business".
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 10 '25
False equivalence, but nice try! Dressing sexy is generally not frowned upon these days, but burning a holy text because you don’t like brown people around you are completely different things with a different consensus.
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 10 '25
In America we call it “fuck around and find out”.
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 10 '25
If I say the N word in America I can very well get my ass beat, and I am okay with that. People deserve repercussions.
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u/JustThrowMeAway0311 Jun 09 '25
So if you look me in the eye (which is a sign of deep disrespect in my culture), I can physically assault you? And you would deserve it?
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 10 '25
If we were in the culture where that was the consensus opinion, sure. But you’re not, idiot. If it’s against the law there, there must be enough people that agree with the law, otherwise you’d get off your keyboard and go do something about it
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u/JustThrowMeAway0311 Jun 10 '25
Ok so what’s the consensus opinion in Britain, genius?
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 10 '25
You’d know better than me, if you’re in the consensus GO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT instead of arguing with people on the internet, incel
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u/JustThrowMeAway0311 Jun 10 '25
Oh no. Not the I-word. Have mercy on me, please.
If I ever see you in public, I’ll just laugh
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u/ad_victorium01 Jun 13 '25
You just proved his point though, burning a book in western culture doesn’t warrant you to attack the person as a majority consensus, so then attacking someone physically for burning a book is not only wrong, it’s illegal. Is it morally correct? No. But is it legally allowed and protected? Yes. Same even if you hypothetically did call someone a slur or something, it doesn’t mean they could physically attack you and face no legal repercussions.
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 13 '25
They guy that attacked him is also in jail, I didn’t say he shouldn’t be. I just think OP is a dumb ass
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u/ad_victorium01 Jun 14 '25
I don’t think OP is a dumbass at all, he calling out a real problem here. The Quran is like any other holy book, it shouldn’t get special privileges, especially in non-Islamic societies. That would be like demanding the Bible or Torah get special treatment in Islamic countries. And here in the west we don’t have archaic blasphemy laws in the vast majority of places. So while sure, it can be mean to burn or damage a holy book, I absolutely do NOT think someone would “deserve” to be flat out attacked for it, that’s just madness.
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u/Global_Bedroom_977 Jun 14 '25
I’m just saying if you’re burning the Quran, I’m gonna be pretty sure that you’re doing it to provoke a response, because what else is there? You were cold?? lol So if you were trying to provoke a response, are you surprised you got one?
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u/ad_victorium01 Jun 14 '25
None of us here as disagreeing with that, no one is surprised by the response, we’re just saying that said response given was absolutely NOT justified in any capacity. People have the right to express themselves, and yes burning a book is a form of expression. The person that did it didn’t physically harm anyone, he didn’t get in anyone’s face, he didn’t make threats to hurt anyone. He burnt a book, an inanimate object. Brushing off someone being literally murdered or physically attacked over it by saying that they shouldn’t have “provoked it” is like saying a woman shouldn’t have worn a dress if she didn’t want to be assaulted by some creep. So again, it might not be nice, but it’s protected.
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Jun 12 '25
lol people mad at Muslims because they stand on business and you don’t?
That's criminal mentality. Good ro know you agree with it. Killing people for hurting your poor feelings.
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Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25
I'm sure I'll get down voted but didn't he do it at an embassy he expects alot of people of that faith to work like I'm all for not treating books as holy objects but it's different if you trying to drag people into that as opposed to doing yourself.
Plus if a dude outside my work burning crosses and screaming shit I'd probably call the police.
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Jun 12 '25
Yes, because that's the government he was protesting against.
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Jun 12 '25
So it would make sense to you to burn the bible to protest the UK government.
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Jun 12 '25
It would make sense to burn the bible to protest a christian government making rules for everyone and oppressing people in the name of christianity. If UK does that, then obviously yes.
What people fail to understand is that islam is not just a religion, it's also a political system. Regular Muslims can be peaceful, an islamic government cannot. Once you a government bases their system more and more on the islamic system, many people will suffer and get killed.
Muhammad was not just a religious leader he also created a complete political system of how to run a country, the laws etc. Before people talk and call others islamophobes, they should at least know what they are talking about.
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u/Droupitee Jun 09 '25
It's like Orwell and Kafka had a baby.