When a British judge last week ruled that criticism of Islam counts as a “protected belief”, it seemed paradoxical: the Equality Act, long accused by the political Right of stifling free expression, was suddenly upholding it. For some, this appeared to confirm that the law is self-contradictory, a statute designed to protect minorities which is now defending the right to criticise religion. Yet perhaps the contradiction lies not in the Act itself, but in a society that has lost the moral compass to distinguish between the fair criticism of ideas and outright discrimination against people.
