It is sickening and it's through gritted teeth that I applaud the acquittal of Nick Griffin and one of his BNP henchmen on the charge of incitement to racial hatred.

A victory for freedom of speech, but short-lived I fear, for he was prosecuted under an old law, not the new one banning incitement to religious hatred. And in any case, the Chancellor has said that 'the law may need to be changed' if convictions in such cases are to be secured. There's something very menacing about a statement like that.

As for hatred, I hate the BNP and all it stands for. I know that the besuited Griffin, intelligent and articulate, presents a reasonable image, but this hides bigotry, intolerance and igorance. And the visceral hatred and desire for violence in his followers is genuinely terrifying.

I wouldn't call Islam 'evil', because 'evil' is a religous word. I would call it stupid, a superstition, a reactionary, cruel creed which brainwashes its adherents as thoroughly as Moonyism or Scientology.

If anything should be mocked and insulted, it is religion. To believe in a religion is to sacrifice one's mind to obscurantism; to sell one's birthright of reason for a spurious certainty. And that applies to all religions, however meek and mild. So, yes, mock their silly rituals and clothes, lampoon their symbols, their incantations; their regressive views, their progressive views; their arrogance and their hypocrisy.

The government's desire to bring in religious hatred laws is based on fear. Unlike other laws promoting equality or outlawing discrimination, which are inspired by a desire to protect the weak and by a sense of fair play.

The religious hatred laws are a government quid pro quo, a sop to Muslims. 'We're going to lock a lot of you up, because you are prime suspects in terrorism cases. On the other hand we're showing you how reasonable we are towards your religion (and patronise you at the same time). Older discrimination laws may have been enacted to protect the weak. These laws are designed to protect us, the non-Muslim majority from their potential violence.

OK, these laws apply to all religions, but we know it's all about Islam. After all, as Linda Smith quipped, 'if you insult a member of the Church of England, what's he going to do? Offer you a sherry in the wrong glass?'

In the time of Elizabeth I, the country was afraid of Catholics. Not primarily because of religious intolerance, but because they did not owe full alliegance to the state or the Queen, believing that God (by which they meant the Pope) was to be obeyed first. In practice, this meant Spain. In the twentieth century, members of the Communist Party felt the same way. Kim Philby made some remark choosing his principles or his friends rather than his country. Of course, this meant in practice that he was choosing the Soviet Union.

What I fear is that the so-called Muslim 'community' is the latest of these states within the state.