Hate crime: is it worse in Scotland than in England and Wales?
Roger Kiska, Legal Counsel to the Christian Legal Centre, analyses how Scotland’s new hate crime law compares to the law in England and Wales In 2021, the Scottish Parliament passed the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 which, largely because of concerns relating to the bill and the introduction of new amendments, did ...
25 April 2024 Articles
Win for two Christians arrested for preaching next to LGBT flags
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped a case against two street preachers who faced being criminalised following arrests for refusing to stop preaching from the Bible on Glastonbury High Street. Mr John Dunn and Mr Shaun O’Sullivan, who are being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, were arrested by officers wearing rainbow lanyards under ...
6 March 2024 Articles
Tell the Covid inquiry how lockdown affected you and your church
As you may well have seen in the news, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry is now underway and began hearings last year. The inquiry, which was set up by the government, has a system for collecting individual stories about the impact of Covid on you and others you know. Everyone has their own personal stories about ...
5 January 2024 Articles
Why does the UK lack research on Islamist extremism and terrorism?
Public Policy Researcher Dr Carys Moseley writes on the lack of research on Islamist extremism and why Christians are being referred to Prevent A report published last week warns that the UK lacks sufficient research on Islamist extremism. The report was commissioned by the Commission for Countering Extremism, and authored by Daniel Allington, an academic ...
21 December 2023 Articles
Christians in the Firing Line 2 launched by livestream
Ten years after Christians in the Firing Line was first published, Christians in the Firing Line 2 has now been released. In the live online book launch, our Chief Executive, Andrea Williams and Head of Public Policy, Tim Dieppe had an uplifting conversation with Author Dr Richard Scott. Together they endeavoured to answer viewers’ questions, ...
1 December 2023 ArticlesChristians in the Firing Line 2 book launch
Legal cases supported by the Christian Legal Centre have escalated sharply since Christians in the Firing Line was published ten years ago. This called for a sequel, and Christians in the Firing Line 2 conveys the impact on Christians of the aggressive secularism that is sweeping across the nation. The selection of cases in Christians ...
28 November 2023 Events
‘To express Christian beliefs is a form of blasphemy’
“We’re living in a time when free speech is increasingly under threat in the country, as evidenced by some of our cases, street preachers being arrested and people losing their jobs just for expressing what they think.” Tim Dieppe, our Head of Public Policy, sits down with Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, ...
25 March 2023 Articles
‘Misgendering’ is not a crime: support preacher convicted for ‘misgendering’
Did you know you could be fined £620 and forced to do 80 hours of community service for ‘misgendering’ someone? In June 2021, Dave McConnell was preaching in Leeds when a ‘trans woman’ asked him whether God accepted the LGBT community, answering truthfully and Scripturally. However, after members of the crowd shouted, swore and made ...
7 March 2023 Articles
Giving thanks for 2022: the year in review
What are you grateful for in 2022? We’ve seen many cases won over the past year, including Nigel and Sally Rowe’s challenge over trans policies in schools; Dr Dermot Kearney’s case against the General Medical Council, and who has now helped to save over 30 babies from unwanted abortions; and the likes of Maureen Martin, ...
21 December 2022 Articles
Government admits it was ‘inappropriate’ for CPS to call Bible ‘offensive’
In a win for Christian freedoms, the government has said that it was “inappropriate” for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to argue that parts of the Bible are “no longer appropriate in modern society” while trying to convict a Christian preacher of an alleged ‘hate crime.’ In the House of Lords this week, Baroness Hoey ...
14 December 2022 ArticlesGovernment says it was ‘inappropriate’ for Crown Prosecution to say parts of Bible are ‘no longer appropriate in modern society’
In a win for Christian freedoms, the government has said that it was ‘inappropriate’ for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to argue that parts of the Bible are ‘no longer appropriate in modern society’ while trying to convict a Christian preacher of an alleged ‘hate crime.’
14 December 2022 Press Office
The judiciary should ‘protect free speech’ – not suppress it
Street preacher John Dunn was arrested after reading the Bible in public and told by prosecutors that parts of the Bible are “abusive” and “no longer appropriate in modern society.” The Public Order Act charges against him were, however, eventually dropped after his accusers ‘refused to engage with the case’. The Christian Legal Centre’s Michael ...
5 December 2022 Articles
A chance for Christians to shape the Bill of Rights
The government is consulting on reforming the Human Rights Act by replacing it with a Bill of Rights. This is expected to be one of the biggest constitutional changes in the UK for decades. The consultation is a golden opportunity to tell the government to ensure Christian freedoms are maximised in the proposed Bill of ...
4 March 2022 Articles
2021: a good year for Christian freedoms?
Andrea Williams looks back over the past year, reviewing how Christian freedoms have been impacted. 2020 was a bad year for freedom generally with harsh lockdowns imposed across the country and churches forced by law to close for the first time in hundreds of years. As we entered 2021, things were looking brighter. Churches were ...
5 January 2022 Articles
Christian preacher’s Covid regs case dropped
The first Christian preacher to fall foul of coronavirus laws during the first English lockdown, has had the case against him dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The loss of religious freedom due to coronavirus regulations during the pandemic has been hotly contested, most notably in the successful judicial review of Scottish restrictions on ...
9 September 2021 ArticlesVictory as first Christian preacher to be prosecuted under covid regs sees case thrown out
The first Christian preacher to fall foul of coronavirus laws during the first English lockdown, has had the case against him dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
9 September 2021 Press Office
‘What might be offensive to one person might be the salvation of another’
The Christian Legal Centre’s Roger Kiska explains why there should be space for street preachers to share the good news of Jesus Christ in the public square. Speaking to William Crawley on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback he says: “what might be offensive to one person might be the salvation of another”. Christian Concern · ‘What ...
20 August 2021 Articles
Preacher to pursue legal action against police after Easter arrest and fine
A judge has ruled that it was right for the police to arrest and fine a Christian volunteer for breaking Covid regulations by street preaching on Easter Sunday. Andrew Sathiyavan, 46, who is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, was arrested on Sutton High Street in south London on Easter Sunday 2020 after being told ...
1 July 2021 ArticlesPreacher to pursue legal action against police after Easter Sunday arrest and covid fine
A judge has ruled that it was right for the police to arrest and fine a Christian volunteer for breaking covid regulations by street preaching on Easter Sunday.
28 June 2021 Press Office
Why do the police have favourites?
In a guest post, Harry Miller (Fair Cop) compares how different groups are treated by police when they critique or offend other religions and beliefs. Imagine a musical in which the prophet, Mohammed, is cast with the swivelling hips of Little Richard and Muslims are kept in line by a dancing pork chop. If it ...
7 May 2021 Articles
The ‘Wrong Man’ to accuse of a hate incident
Former police officer Harry Miller writes about his important legal case against the police for recording non-crime hate incidents. Harry explains why the police picked ‘the wrong man’ when they found him guilty without trial of a non-crime hate incident. There was a short exchange at my recent Court of Appeal hearing in which Lady ...
8 April 2021 Articles
The impact of lockdowns on religious freedoms
Following the government’s restrictive lockdown measures to try to combat the spread of Covid-19, the Joint Committee on Human Rights launched a call for evidence on the impacts of local and national lockdowns. The committee said it was seeking views on the impact that lockdown has on specific freedoms, including: “The impact of lockdown on ...
12 January 2021 Articles
Human Rights Committee to investigate hate speech and free expression
The Joint Committee on Human Rights is investigating the issue of freedom of expression, calling for evidence from interested groups and individuals. Christian Concern has now submitted evidence from many of our legal cases and the individuals and families that we have supported, calling for free speech to be protected in our society. We would ...
19 November 2020 Articles
The rest of the world is watching as freedom of religion is eroded in the West
Dr Martin Parsons, an independent consultant on the global persecution of Christians, comments on the closure of churches during the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on freedom of religion. On 23 March, the UK government announced a lockdown, including the first legal closure of churches by the government since Magna Carta. For a nation which ...
15 October 2020 Articles