Last February, Hamit Coskun stood outside the Turkish embassy in London and lit a Quran on fire while shouting "Islam is a religion of terrorism" and "fuck Islam." On Tuesday, his case returned to a U.K. court. According to the BBC, a decision is due to be made "at a later date," but if things don't go his way, he might be granted asylum in the United States.
Last June, Coskun, a U.K. asylum seeker from Turkey, was convicted of breaching the U.K.'s Public Order Act, which makes it an offense to use "threatening or abusive words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour," and for harassing the "religious institution of Islam." During the trial at the Westminster magistrates' court, U.K authorities argued that burning the Quran in front of an embassy amounted to disorderly public behavior. Coskun was then convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offense. This carried a fine of 240 pounds (about $323) and "a statutory surcharge" of 96 pounds ($129), according to the BBC.
