The UK government has launched its new working group tasked with defining ‘Islamophobia’. Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner calls this a ‘crucial step’ in tackling anti-Muslim hate crime and bigotry. In truth, it is laying the groundwork for an official speech code that will make it even harder to discuss some of the most important, sensitive and politically fraught issues of our time.

It was announced last week that Rayner’s working group will be chaired by former Conservative attorney general Dominic Grieve KC, who has himself admitted that defining Islamophobia while safeguarding free speech is ‘extremely difficult’. Notably, Grieve wrote the foreword to the controversial 2018 All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report on Islamophobia, which advanced a definition that many critics argue is far too broad. His role on Rayner’s ‘Islamophobia council’ therefore raises worrying questions about where this process is heading. Should we expect Grieve’s working group to rethink the APPG’s flawed approach, or is it simply planning to repackage the APPG’s highly problematic definition? The latter seems most likely.

The APPG’s definition states that ‘Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’. This wording has been widely criticised for equating criticism of Islamic beliefs, or indeed of anything even tangentially related to Islam, with racial discrimination. Maintaining a distinction between race and religion is crucial. Religious beliefs are not innate characteristics. They must remain open to discussion, critique and debate. Any official definition of Islamophobia, particularly one derived from the APPG’s framework, will have a chilling effect on free expression.

Britain’s grooming-gangs scandal ought to make clear what the dangers are here. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch recently told parliament that Labour’s adoption of the APPG definition for internal party matters may have stifled discussion on grooming gangs. Why? Because the APPG report explicitly lists ‘stereotypes and tropes about Islam, such [as] sexual profligacy and paedophilia or Islam and violence, and their modern-day iteration in the “Asian grooming gangs”’ as examples of Islamophobia. According to Badenoch, this has made it difficult to acknowledge the statistical overrepresentation of Pakistani-heritage men in such crimes, despite the clear evidence supporting this.