EARLIER this year, passages from the Koran were read out at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow. The idea was to promote inter-faith tolerance, but the provost of the cathedral, Kelvin Holdsworth, became the target of abusive messages. Some of them were so alarming that Mr Holdsworth felt he had no choice but to call in the police.
As the provost himself admits, there was a time when the police might have not taken the idea of hate crime seriously – indeed, Mr Holdsworth, who is gay, remembers this happening when he received hate mail in the past. But it looks like times have changed. Speaking to The Herald, Mr Holdsworth says Police Scotland have taken the islamophobic and homophobic abuse seriously and are following up a number of possible prosecutions.
This is undoubtedly good news and a reflection of how attitudes on hate crime are changing. Sadly, however, the change in attitudes has not been accompanied by any real improvement in the incidence of hate crime. The number of criminal charges for hate crimes against Muslims in Scotland almost doubled in 2015-16; there were also significant increases in charges related to sexuality and disability.
The numbers involved are small, but the case of St Mary’s is a reminder of the work that still needs to be done. A review of Scotland’s hate crime legislation is underway, but the failure of the Scottish Government’s law on offensive behaviour at football games is an indication that a rush to legislation is not necessarily the answer.
What is needed instead is much more change at community level. Pupils need to be taught more about what is acceptable online; everyone needs to be encouraged to report prejudice or abuse when they see it. And, as Mr Holdsworth says, more religious organisations need to facilitate inter-faith understanding.
The reading of the Koran at St Mary’s may have led to a wave of abuse and hate. But in talking to and cooperating with other faiths, churches and mosques have the power to change attitudes in the long term. It would be good for religious organisations, but it would be good for society too.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel