ABSTRACT
Religion unites, and divides, billions of people around the world. In the United Kingdom, some 45 million citizens profess adherence to one of the major world religions or other devotions.2 Of these, many are committed to minority creeds and faiths.3 While religious pluralism, liberty and equality are now general cultural and legal expectations, the history of interplay between religious identities in the UK is one of intellectually – and sometimes physically – violent discord.4 Today, religious frictions – albeit an inevitable
facet of a plural society – persist. Both low-level antipathies and serious religious disputes are driven by any number of factors: long-standing and incipient factionalism within religious groupings, more or less aggressive secularist critique, fears of indoctrination by charismatic leaders of newfangled faiths, discordance with the prevailing culture of materialism, the perceived frustration of the reasonable desire for some to manifest their faith, and the resentment among some faiths of the proselytising zeal of others. Occasionally, perhaps surprisingly infrequently, the general law is called upon to regulate or to resolve disputes engendered by religious difference. From time to time, it is the law of libel – that aspect of legal doctrine that exists to provide protection for reputation against unfounded and damaging criticism – that is invoked.5
