Criticism of Islam is a protected belief

And yet you haven't answered.
How do you eat, or even drink water in a burqa.
Phys ed is a lawful requirement in schools, how do you do that in a burqa.
If your answer is ' take it off', why even wear it.

You do know what a burqa is?

If you have to "grapple" with the essential meaning of Jesus' teaching, then you really haven't understood them.

The only "grappling" that ever needs to be done is when you are looking for loopholes.

I've not seen any philosopher in the ancient world criticise slavery as an institution.

Why do you think that is ? Once again the ancients (i.e. pre Christian) lived in a completely different world to us. Throwing concepts of "good", "evil, "harm" around is meaningless. They had no concept of human life as being in any way equal. That is very much a Christian contrivance (although the story of the last 2,000 years has been people "grappling" with the concept to explain why it doesn't apply to them).

Just to address the thread title, do you think Islam should be protected from criticism or ridicule by the law or should the law protect my freedom to say what I think about it?

All religions are equally deserving of the same protection afforded to Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, or Peter Pan.

I absolutely do! It is vile! It is abhorrent! I'm just pointing out that while LGB people are still being mistreated by religions (note the plural), it is absolutely not to the same degree across said religions despite what @JadeSquid is claiming.

You don't think that ending a life or destroying a life carries any emotional or moral weight?

Lol do they do PE? How do they eat their lunch. Lol. You guys are hysterical.

Of course it does. If a Christian country oppresses people.based on it's religious beliefs, then that's as bad as a Islamic country doing the same.

Fair enough. I wish none of them existed. Invented by the rich and powerful to keep the poor in place, more laterally used by men to keep women in place.

I absolutely do! It is vile! It is abhorrent! I'm just pointing out that while LGB people are still being mistreated by religions (note the plural), it is absolutely not to the same degree across said religions despite what @JadeSquid is claiming.

Lol do they do PE? How do they eat their lunch. Lol. You guys are hysterical.

You don’t find it absolutely shocking that there is even one?

No they arent because they cannot be of their religion and wear jeans. You can be Muslim and not wear a hijab.

If you’d like to discuss Africa there are some horrendous atrocities happening in Mali and other countries. Here’s the latest but it’s been going on for some time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20e2lnvgpgo.amp

It isnt just the Amish that live like this. Not by any means.

You said:

"No, just by the awareness that after a certain point a foetus becomes a baby and that taking a life is an act which has moral weight."

That speaks of all pregnancies.

12 countries apply the death penalty for homosexual relationships: Saudi Arabia, Brunéi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Yemen, Uganda, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia.

Of these, only Uganda has a Christian majority. The Ugandan dictator is a fundamentalist evangelical Christian, and the Catholic Church has publicly opposed death penalty for HR.

All the other 11 countries are Muslim majority, many of them claiming Islam as defining the law of the country (as in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania).

Well no, obviously not here. Afghanistan isn’t here, either? I thought this was about religion worldwide.

Fundamental Christianity in some African countries is completely curtailing and sometimes barbaric if a young woman is homosexual.
No whataboutery from me, equivalence.

I'm not sure why you keep holding up extremes in the US as representative. Do you live there?
This thread is about freedom to criticise all religions in the UK without fear or favour. I see a lot to criticise.
I'm actually horrified at schoolgirls in burqas, do they do PE? How do they eat their lunch?
What faith puts such strictures on schoolgirls, not even grown women, in the UK.

@JadeSquid

Not here even with a soft underpinning of Christianity. How lucky we are as women and girls.

How desperate it is for women and girls elsewhere, particularly when so many turn a blind eye and prefer to talk about anything else.

No they arent because they cannot be of their religion and wear jeans. You can be Muslim and not wear a hijab.

I feel (strongly) that the Amish should be prosecuted for not giving their children modern medicine. But it's a question of children's rights, not of women's rights (and a narrow question at that in terms of% of population).

But if a grown Amish woman wants to see a modern doctor and her husband stops her she can sue him. And any US Court will rule in her favor and possibly throw the man in jail.

Now if a grown Afghan woman wants to see a modern doctor the State will throw her into jail.

Still can't see the difference ? And again, not mentioning stoning to death and the likes

The girls not allowed to wear jeans were in exactly the same place as those who wear a burkha. It’s all good as just diversity though?

Fundamental Christianity in some African countries is completely curtailing and sometimes barbaric if a young woman is homosexual.
No whataboutery from me, equivalence.