[rmc]

> And we all know Islam is a race, not a religion, so it deserves the same protections from discrimination.

In Europe, "racism", in law, means discrimination to someone on the grounds of their race, ethnicity, national origin or religious background. It's been that way since the 1960s.

[DanBC]

That wasn't the case in the UK, where Jewish people got protection under race discrimination law, Christians got protections under blasphemy laws[1], but Muslims weren't protected by either.

It was fine to say things about Muslims and Islam that you could not say about Jews or Christians.

This loophole was used by far-right groups - the BNP, EDL, etc to avoid prosecution.

[1] And before you say the blasphemy laws were never used the film "Life of Brian" only got permissions for Glasgow cinemas in 2009, and Stewart Lee went through a very expensive blasphemy court case for "Jerry Springer the Opera".

[golergka]

Jews are an ethnicity first and foremost — you can't really compare it to being christian or muslim. You can choose to accept or refuse a religion, but you can't change your ethnicity (at least at a modern DNA therapy level).