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A veteran councillor has joined colleagues in voicing his opposition to the Scottish Government's proposed Hate Crime Bill, insisting it is a major threat to
free speech.
The use of the criminal law to control the expression of views involves a delicate balance if the law is not to become repressive, says Alexander McCall
Smith.
The school that Shamima Begum and two other schoolgirls attended before they left the UK to become Islamic State brides today said it had introduced "robust"
initiatives to prevent pupils being radicalised.
The Anglo-Indian author has long been a staunch defender of free speech and his own life was under threat for many years after Iran's spiritual leader
Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him in 1989, following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.
"While gays and lesbians have never had the legal right to marry or to form civil unions in Poland, as they can in much of Europe, many felt confident until
not long ago that Polish society was becoming more accepting and that those rights would one day come. They have instead faced a furious backlash from the
Catholic Church and the government."
"The space to debate, dissent, question and demand a separation of the Church and the State, as laid down in the Indian constitution, has been given a quiet
burial."
Scotland's new hate crime bill could easily be weaponised to silence any speech deemed offensive. This will disempower, rather than protect, society's most
vulnerable, says Megan Manson.
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