Democracy cannot exist without the right to free speech.
Free speech should be robustly defended as a fundamental freedom.
The National Secular Society has defended free speech from religious threats since our founding. We played an instrumental role in abolishing "blasphemy" laws in Britain, but serious concerns remain. Blasphemy laws still exist in Northern Ireland. And throughout the UK, religious fundamentalists seek to impose their blasphemy taboos on others through violence and intimidation.
There are also increasing attempts to categorise offending religious sensibilities as 'hate speech', making criticism, mockery or perceived 'insult' of religion a criminal act akin to racial hatred or inciting violence – in other words, a 'blasphemy law by the back door'.
Without free speech no search for truth is possible; without free speech no discovery of truth is useful; without free speech progress is checked… Better a thousand fold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech.
We are further concerned by a developing 'culture of offence' in which any speech or action deemed likely to offend religious sensibilities is considered taboo. Enforced by a toxic mix of terrorism and religious deference, this is chilling free speech through self-censorship.
We also campaign against blasphemy laws around the world, where they continue to be used to target religious and political minorities. These are sometimes described by UK politicians as 'misuse' of blasphemy laws, but we contend there are never any legitimate uses for blasphemy laws.
Being offended from time to time is the price we all pay for living in a free society. Rather than trying to silence those we disagree with, we believe the answer to speech we don't like is more speech – better speech.
We therefore campaign to protect and preserve freedom of expression, including offensive, critical and shocking speech.
What you can do
1. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
2. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
MP calls for urgent action after killer of Asad Shah incites anti-Ahmadi violence from prison
Posted: Wed, 25 Jan 2017 15:38
An MP has urged the Scottish Government to take action after Tanver Ahmed, who killed Ahmadi Muslim shopkeeper Asad Shah, released another anti-Ahmadi recording from prison.
Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh has written to the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Michael Matheson MSP, urging him to ensure that Ahmed's "access to media and recording equipment" is "curtailed immediately."
McDonagh wrote: "You will be aware that Mr Shah was targeted by Ahmed for his peaceful Ahmadi beliefs. Mr Asad Shah was the first Ahmadi Muslim to be killed in the UK for his beliefs, targeted as a result of his peaceful posts on social media.
"And yet, despite Tanveer Ahmed's incarceration, he continues to spread his message of hate, recently recording a message for extremist websites in Urdu calling on his supporters to 'eliminate enemies of Islam'."
The MP, who is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, has also written to the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service.
She added that "groups or Imams who support this hateful cause operating and preaching" in Scotland "must be stopped."
McDonagh said it was "unfathomable" that Ahmed "can spread his message of hate from prison" and that the Scottish Prison Service "must act".
Two recordings have been released by Ahmed from his cell, the first in September. The most recent recording praises Mumtaz Qadri, the terrorist who murdered Pakistani politician Salman Taseer, a vocal critic of the country's blasphemy law.
In the new recording Ahmed says, "Anyone who disregards the respect and honour of Ghazi Mumtaz Qadri, he is the one who announces his enmity with Islam openly.
"Whoever calls the martyr an assassin, he is vicious, unclean and false."
In the recording the killer urges his followers to "eliminate all of the enemies of Islam and uplift the flag of Islam."
Ahmed said he killed Shah to defend the "honour" of Mohammed.
Shah's family said they were still being "traumatised" by the killer's actions. Their lawyer said that Ahmed "continues to taunt the family from inside a Scottish prison with calls supporting terrorism.
"If he has access to a phone and is able to get recordings to his supporters, that is surely something that could be easily stopped by the Scottish Prison Service. Can't they simply take his phone away?
"It is our understanding that anti-terror police have already been in touch with the prison service to try to put a stop to this. But these messages of hate are still being broadcast."
Legacy of Charlie Hebdo honoured in event at Parliament
Posted: Thu, 19 Jan 2017 16:01
Members and supporters of the National Secular Society gathered in Portcullis House on Wednesday night to discuss the future of free speech, two years after the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
The Society was honoured to be joined by Caroline Fourest, who helped edit the 'Survivor's Edition' of Charlie Hebdo published shortly after the massacre.
She discussed the shameful treatment of Charlie Hebdo following the massacre by some UK media outlets: after the attack, Sky News cut her off in the middle of an interview when she tried to show a cartoon of Mohammed.
Those who defy Islamic blasphemy laws don't just face violence and threats, she said, but demonisation from the regressive left.
She stressed the need for secularists to condemn anti-Muslim bigotry but criticised the term 'Islamophobia', arguing that it conflated Muslims with Islam, and stifled discussion about the religion.
Introducing the event, Keith Porteous Wood, the executive director of the National Secular Society, said hopes that media organisations would publish the cartoons in solidarity with the magazine had failed.
The "heartening outpouring of solidarity, the sense of indignation and outrage, the crowds shouting 'Je Suis Charlie'" had offered a "brief glimmer of hope," he said.
"Following the attack, we could hope that perhaps liberal democracies all around the world had now finally grasped the extent, the power and the depth of the challenge and threat that had first been posed, in the western world, by the would-be assassins of Salman Rushdie, all those years ago.
"Perhaps now they had finally grasped the nature of the ancient mandate for violence that the killers had taken up.
"Maybe they had even realised that there could be no accommodation whatsoever, that defiance and solidarity were the only guarantees of values that we take for granted, but which atrophy and fade, values which can wither, rights that must be maintained and actively defended.
"But the solidarity didn't last, our collective outrage quickly gave way to bitter disputes, and bile against Charlie from those who blamed the victims for their own murder. The crowds went home."
The panel also featured writer and journalist Nick Cohen, Jodie Ginsberg of Index on Censorship and Martin Rowson.
Nick Cohen urged those present to buy Caroline Fourest's book, 'In Praise of Blasphemy', after she said that, despite it being a bestseller in France, no UK publisher would touch it. He accused people of making feeble excuses for not showing genuine solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, arguing that there were very good reasons to be frightened of publishing a Mohammed cartoon, but that few would admit that was the true reason.
Cohen also spoke powerfully on liberals' failure of Muslims by pandering to Islamists and reactionary community leaders as 'authentic' conduits to Muslim communities in the West.
Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship, said that a "pincer movement" was attacking free speech. She pointed to Government proposals for 'extremism disruption orders' as one example, and criticised Tony Blair and other politicians for calling for laws against offending "religious feelings."
She said that society lacked the ability to debate productively and that whatever you did, however innocuous you think it is, somebody will claim to be 'offended'.
People went very quickly after the attack from saying "Je Suis Charlie" to, "Je Suis Charlie, but…" and too many claim to "defend free speech" but in practice out only the "kind I like."
Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson spoke about the resistance of the paper to publishing a cartoon of Mohammed, and said that any organisation that did so would face tremendous threats, without the safety in numbers that might have been hoped for in the aftermath of the attack two years ago.
Rowson added that one of the great threats to freedom of speech was the belief that the greatest human right of all was a right to not be upset.
Jim Fitzpatrick MP, who sponsored the room for the NSS, congratulated the Society on hosting the event and said that it was inspiring to hear such a strong defence of free expression.
