'Islamophobia' - yet again

Cranmer has a disturbing post today (by Canon Gavin Ashenden) about the possibility, given a Labour or Labour-led victory in the British General Election tomorrow, of the enactment of a specific law against 'islamophobia.' [here]
One might very well argue that the current law (in fact, a series of statutes, the Public Order Act of 1986, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 and the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998) is more than sufficient to counter any problems Britain's various minority communities may have in terms of  those who seek to incite hatred or violence against them. 

However, to elevate one specific religion (indeed, in the contemporary world, a faith whose more vocal and extreme adherents are noted for encouraging and inflicting violence against others rather than for their vulnerable peaceability) as deserving a special protection over and above other faiths would be a singularly retrograde step, and would, without any doubt, be used by some more 'radical' followers of Mohammed, and their fellow-travellers, to attempt to restrict free speech and even disinterested (in its correct sense) historical scholarship and research in a country which, largely due to its Christian heritage, has until now rightly prided itself on the rule of law and the protection of the liberty of speech, thought, and association of its citizens.

Of course, politicians are notorious for making promises whilst standing for election which they have no intention of honouring when in office; however, the very fact that such a commitment seems to have been made, is a disturbing sign that many of our political leaders are so captive to a now largely discredited ideology of multiculturalism that they fail to understand the very nature of law and liberty. Far from being an enrichment of our society's well-deserved reputation for hospitality and tolerance, the passing of an anti-islamophobia law would constitute a considerable impoverishment of our political, religious and intellectual culture.