Sitting in court watching Stephen Gray’s appeal against a conviction for reposting a meme which mocked Islam and Muhammad marrying a child. He had 15-20 followers on Facebook. A (non-Muslim!) neighbour, who Stephen has previous disagreements with, decided to report him to the police claiming it caused him distress…
The fundamental argument from the CPS is that Stephen was not making a political point. That he expressed his objection to Islamic child marriage in a way that was simply to offend because it singled out Islam, and he should have made his post more nuanced and sensitive if he was making a political point.
The defence is having to point out that Muhammad did in fact marry a 6 year old according to Islamic texts, and that child marriage does still occur in Islamic countries AND there are prominent Islamic scholars IN THE UK who openly say that they are content with child marriage. And either way, it is not illegal to offend others, and you are allowed to make political points that are not nuanced.
To think of all the actual, serious crime in Middlesbrough — let alone the rest of the country — and the time being wasted on this nonsense. Actually witnessing the amount of public resource and time being funnelled into prosecuting people for causing offence by highlighting a factual point is acutely infuriating.
Anyway, join the @SpeechUnion because you never know when it might be you having to explain why you don’t like child marriage, or anything else that Islam permits.
The Free Speech Union team are proud to support FSU member Stephen Gray as he appeals his conviction for posting a joke about Islam on Facebook.
Today, Stephen’s appeal was heard at Middlesbrough Crown Court.
Judgment has been reserved for six weeks, so we expect to know the outcome on 21 December.
It has been an incredibly long day, largely thanks to the Crown Prosecution Service’s ineptitude.
Today has once again shown that the process itself is the punishment.
We’re keeping the faith and hope Stephen gets the justice he deserves — and that we can fight back against an Islamic blasphemy law.
Please donate to our crowdfunder below, and watch Stephen’s update 👇
@garyday682 The enrolment rate was almost exactly the same as 2023. Presumably, anyone who wanted to enrol and vote did so by the deadline, and the people who didn’t enrol were those who wouldn’t have enrolled anyway.
Wow, Chloe Swarbrick has gone into peak "the election was stolen" mode ... totally undermining our democracy with false narratives. 😡 She joins Hipkins, Helen Clark and other leftists who think our election was manipulated to the point where it was effectively stolen.
Are they themselves importing the dreaded "culture wars" that they so often oppose? 🤔
#familyfirstnz #election2026
🚨 WATCH
October 2026
@chrishipkins - “I don’t want to get into the territory that we’ve seen overseas where a party that doesn’t do as well as they hope in the election starts to scream about the illegitimacy of elections."
Will you accept the results of the election?
"Absolutely"
November 2026
“National has lost the party vote” and “they’re only holding on to the prospect of power because they’ve manipulated the electoral system”.
🎙️🚨 NEW FSU PODCAST EPISODE OUT TODAY AT 2PM!
The Government’s draft Conversion Practices Bill is a Trojan horse for putting Stonewall’s trans ideology on the statute book.
It will also see parents arrested and jailed for up to five years for having good-faith conversations with their gender-confused children or trying to dissuade them from pursuing irreversible medical pathways before the age of 18.
This week, FSU External Affairs Officer @_ConnieShaw Shaw is joined by women’s rights campaigner @HJoyceGender.
Tune in on the FSU YouTube channel at 2pm!