The US State Department is reportedly considering allow a man who burned a Koran to receive refugee status if he flees Britain.
Hamut Coskun, 51, overturned a conviction for a religiously aggravated public order offence after he burnt the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in London.
That verdict is being contested by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) at a hearing on Tuesday.
Mr Coskun, who sought asylum in the UK from Turkey, claimed Islamic terrorists had destroyed his family’s life.
He told The Telegraph that, if he loses his case, he may be forced “to flee” Britain and seek protection in the US.
He told the paper: “For me, as the victim of Islamic terrorism, I cannot remain silent. I may be forced to flee the UK and move to the USA, where President Trump has stood for free speech and against Islamic extremism.
“If I have to do so, then, to me, the UK will have effectively fallen to Islamism and the speech codes that it wishes to impose on the non-Muslim world.”
On Feb 13 2025, Mr Coskun travelled from his home in the Midlands to the Turkish embassy in Knightsbridge, where he proceeded to set fire to a copy of the Koran and hold it above his head.
A passerby, Moussa Kadri, slashed at him with a blade before kicking him when he fell to the ground.
Kadri was handed a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, for assault and Mr Coskun was charged with harassing the “religious institution of Islam”.
The charge was later amended after the National Secular Society and the Free Speech Union argued that he was effectively being accused of blasphemy, a charge which was abolished in the UK 18 years ago.
At his trial, CPS lawyers claimed that Mr Coskun was not being prosecuted for setting fire to the Koran, but for “disorderly behaviour in public”.
Subsequently, Mr Coskun was convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offence and fined £240.
That conviction was later overturned at Southwark Crown Court in October, as Mr Justice Bennathan argued, the right to freedom of expression “must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb”.
Mr Coskun’s case is reportedly being closely followed by senior officials in the Trump administration who are said to be discussing offering the 51-year-old refugee status should he apply for it.
The matter looks to escalate the ongoing rift over free speech between the UK and the US, which has been simmering since Vice President JD Vance delivered a divisive speech at the Munich Security Conference last February.
Mr Vance claimed that free speech in the UK was “in retreat” and questioned whether Europe and America still held onto the same democratic values.
The government faced further criticism from the US since the rollout of the Online Safety Act last year, which saw social media giants threatened with fines of up to £18m (or 10 per cent of their annual revenue) if they failed to take down “harmful” content.
The Trump administration argued that the law unfairly targeted US tech companies.
The legislation was also criticised by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s political opponents on home soil, including Reform UK and over 50 peers.
A spokesman for the National Secular Society (NSS) said the CPS “appears determined to establish a blasphemy law by the back door”.
An NSS spokesman said: “Its approach casts those subjected to violence for offending religious sensibilities as the wrongdoers – a stark inversion of justice.”
The society claimed the CPS was aiming to argue that “anyone not distressed by the burning of a Koran is not ‘right-minded’.
“It is not the role of prosecutors to determine what citizens should think or feel about contentious expression. The criminal law cannot be used to enforce religious orthodoxy,” the spokesman said.
“If this appeal succeeds, extremists will be handed a veto over free speech and the power to determine the limits of lawful expression. The High Court must reject this attempt to police offence on behalf of religion.”
