Expanding the offence of ‘glorifying terrorism’ would threaten all of our free speech.
Many have been shocked by the unwillingness of London’s Metropolitan Police to intervene in the ongoing pro-Palestine demos, despite the hate that is so often spewed on them.
According to Met commissioner Mark Rowley, this is because protesters calling for ‘jihad’ or chanting ‘From the river to the sea’ (a coded call for the destruction of Israel) have not committed any crime. Neither chant amounts to the criminal offence of ‘glorifying terrorism’ – that is, to the direct encouragement of terrorist acts or support for a proscribed organisation, such as Hamas. If the UK government wants to tackle such speech, Rowley argues, our terror laws ‘may need redrawing’.
