A security minister has argued that no faith should be immune from criticism ahead of a Government clampdown on extremism.
It comes amid concerns that some extremists have used threats of violence against those thought to have insulted Islam.
Tom Tugendhat has now said that no religion had a right not to be challenged.
It follows the case of a teacher in West Yorkshire who went into hiding two years ago after receiving death threats for showing pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
Tom Tugendhat has said that no religion had a right not to be challenged
Getty/ GB News
Despite refusing to comment on individual cases, Tugendhat told GB News: "There is absolutely no right for any religion to be offended, if we accepted that then we’d still be Catholic.
"Every religion has the right to be challenged and there is no religion that has the right to be immune from that for any reason at all.
"Anybody can challenge any article of any faith, it is absolutely fundamental, and there is no right to be immune from that.
"You know very well because it’s the fundamental tenet of your job as a journalist to have freedom of speech."
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Later this week, the Government are set to deliver a new official definition of extremism.
The announcement will allow the Government and bodies such as universities and councils to ban funding or engagement with Islamist and far-Right groups.
Communities Secretary Michael Gove will reveal the definition.
Groups promoting extremist ideology which "undermines" or "overturns" British values can be blocked from funding or using venues and campuses.
Communities Secretary Michael Gove is set to deliver a new official definition of extremism
PAFiyaz Mughal, a campaigner against extremism is also calling on the Government to publish a list of the extremist groups that would be caught by the new definition.
He was set to become Gove’s anti-Muslim-hatred tsar, but withdrew his application following a stampede of abuse on social media from Islamists.
"These groups have gone under the radar because Government has never had the spine to take them on. We need to call them out to let the public see them and know them for what they are," Mughal told the Telegraph.
