EDOs: Latest warning of possible prosecution for same-sex marriage opponents

The Daily Mail columnist Andrew Pierce is the latest journalist to warn that Extremism Disruption Orders (EDOs) are likely to entrap innocent people.

Pierce warned that anyone who criticises same-sex marriage could be “accused of a hate crime” under the Government’s proposed EDOs.

He said that the approach to EDOs “all sounds fine on paper” but that in the process, the Home Secretary Theresa May could “implicate law-abiding citizens” rather than just tackle radical Islamist preachers.

“It’s only a matter of time before anyone who has the temerity to criticise same-sex marriage, for instance, will be accused of a hate crime under the EDOs.”

The columnist also said some Tory MPs have told him that “teachers who tell pupils that gay marriage is wrong risk being prosecuted under the new orders in the same way as hate preachers”.

He is surely referencing the letter by Mark Spencer MP to one of his constituents.

With every passing day the media is highlighting the fact the EDOs would criminalise people with traditional views – such as the view that marriage is between a man and a woman.

The Home Secretary would do well to take this on board before she presents her proposal to Parliament.

Islamist extremism is a clear and present danger but EDOs are the wrong approach to the problem. They must be scrapped or reformed in order for free speech to be upheld.