🚨🚨Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Shadow Chancellor, has been reported to the police and Prevent, the Government’s counter-extremism programme, over comments he made about Islam. The Free Speech Union has warned that the Government’s Islamophobia definition would chill the ability of elected politicians and private citizens to criticise Islam. Ministers repeatedly assured us that the “anti-Muslim hostility” definition would not silence legitimate criticism of Islam, its history or its practices. Yet here we are. We have been proved repeatedly right. The Islamic website 5Pillars reports that @RobertJenrick was reported after appearing on @danwootton’s Outspoken programme. The complainants asked police to assess whether his remarks could fall under legislation on stirring up religious hatred. They also asked Prevent to consider whether the framing of his comments fell within its definition of extreme right-wing ideology. On the programme, Jenrick said: “Radical Islam is a threat to everything that we hold dear in this country. That it has to be fought and destroyed. It has to be eradicated from our country. And that we can’t allow the creeping Islamification of the United Kingdom.” He also said: “Wearing the burka, Shari’ah courts, hate preachers. End every one of these as quickly as possible, then maybe we’ve got a fighting chance of saving our country from going down the same path as France has clearly gone down.” People need to wake up to what is happening. @JohnCleese has been reported to Prevent over comments criticising Islam, while @RupertLowe10 has been reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over his comments. It is not extremist to criticise Islam. Blasphemy laws were abolished in this country in 2008. Yet the Government, police, activists and courts appear determined to impose one for Islam alone through the back door. We must not let a de facto Islamic blasphemy law take root. Nor must we allow activists to weaponise Prevent to shut down criticism of Islam. Doing so would undermine the integrity of our counter-terrorism efforts. The Free Speech Union stands with Robert Jenrick and his right to speak freely, both as a private citizen and as an elected politician.