Inciting violence in the name of religion exempt from Citizen’s Arrest

I’ve just been reading about the powers of Citizen’s Arrest in the UK. Citizen’s Arrests can be made by anyone (you don’t actually have to be a citizen of the country), with number of caveats – for example that a police officer was not nearby to make the arrest instead.

In a few situations, however, it is not legal to make a citizen’s arrest, and these are specified by the law. These mainly involve when a person is suspected of impersonation in a polling booth. But also listed is when a person is “stirring up religious hatred”.

This latter scenario is defined as a crime under Section 3a of the Public Order Act 1986, where:

“‘religious hatred’ means hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious belief”.

It can be shown, of course, that the Qur’an itself is guilty of an offence under this act, with its many lines encouraging hatred towards non-believers – such as:

“O ye who believe! spend of that wherewith We have provided you ere a day come when there will be no trafficking, nor friendship, nor intercession. The disbelievers, they are the wrong-doers.”

- The Cow 2:254

“Those who disbelieve, and die while they are disbelievers; on them is Allah’s curse and the curse of angels and of all mankind.”

- The Cow 2:161

I have seen videos of Muslims protesting in London carrying placards saying “Massacre those who insult Islam” and “Behead those who insult Islam”. The police, as we know, seem to do nothing about this (probably because of the amount of form filling it would entail, accusations of racism, directives from on high, etc.). But the worrying thing is that due to this mysterious exemption, neither – even theoretically – can we. I would like to know why this exemption is made.

Addition

Thankfully there is this vital proviso in the statute regarding religious hatred:

“29J Protection of freedom of expression

Nothing in this Part shall be read or given effect in a way which prohibits or restricts discussion, criticism or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions or the beliefs or practices of their adherents, or of any other belief system or the beliefs or practices of its adherents, or proselytising or urging adherents of a different religion or belief system to cease practising their religion or belief system.”

As can be seen, this explicitly allows the ridicule and even the insult of religion. Protesting Muslims would do well to be reminded of this. So, indeed, would the Home Secretary.