In the wake of recent tensions between religious groups following the terrorist attacks in the USA, and the subsequent war on terror, the government has proposed outlawing expressions of religious hatred.
The Evangelical Alliance has urged Home Secretary David Blunkett to exercise great care in framing the government's proposed new law - although it guardedly welcomes the principle of protecting faith groups from incitement to racial hatred.
EA policy director, Martyn Eden, warned: 'The danger could be that the freedoms the British people have had for many hundreds of years to practise their religious beliefs, may be threatened by any new law - especially one enacted in haste.