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British Court Rejects Criminal Charges Against Christian Hotel Owners

By Howard M. Friedman

In Britain yesterday, a Liverpool Magistrate's Court dismissed charges of religiously aggravated threatening behavior that had been brought against a Christian couple who own a hotel in Liverpool. The charges brought under Section 5 of the Public Order Act (1986) charged that Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang had made threatening, abusive or insulting remarks about Islam to hotel guest Ericka Tazi. Yesterday's London Times reports that the charges grew out of a 15-minute incident at the hotel when Tazi, who was completing her stay after taking a pain management course at nearby Aintree Hospital, decided to wear a hijab to breakfast. Each side has a somewhat different version of the incident, and the judge, according to BBC News dismissed the charges because the evidence against the hotel owners was inconsistent. The Christian Institute sponsored the Vogelenzang's defense, and the high profile dismissal is seen as a victory by evangelical groups who say the issue was free speech and religious liberty. Business at the Vogelenzang's Bounty House Hotel fell 80% while the prosecution was pending. [Thanks to Religion News Blog for the lead.]

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 10, 2009 (boomark / email).