The Trump administration is in discussions about potentially assisting a British resident who burned a Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in London and later faced prosecution, according to a report Sunday in The Telegraph.
The newspaper reported that officials at the U.S. State Department are preparing to help Hamit Coskun leave the United Kingdom if he loses an ongoing legal case.
Coskun sets fire to Quran
(Video: Social media)
Coskun, a Turkish citizen who was granted asylum in Britain, set fire to a Quran near the Turkish Embassy in February 2025 and shouted denunciations of Islam, including calling it a “religion of terror,” according to the report. During the incident, a Muslim bystander, Musa Kadri, attacked Coskun and attempted to stab him. Kadri later received a 20-month suspended prison sentence.
Coskun was initially charged with harassment against the “religious institution of Islam,” but the charge was later amended after supporters argued that he was effectively being prosecuted for blasphemy, an offense that has not existed in Britain for 18 years. Prosecutors from the Crown Prosecution Service, the main public body responsible for criminal prosecutions in England and Wales, said Coskun was charged not for burning the Quran but for a public order offense.
He was convicted last year of a religiously aggravated public order offense and fined 240 pounds (about $300). However, the conviction was later overturned on appeal. The court ruled that Coskun had the right to behave in a manner that may “offend, shock or disturb” under the principle of freedom of expression.
Despite the successful appeal, the Crown Prosecution Service filed its own appeal with the High Court last week. A senior U.S. administration official told The Telegraph that Coskun’s case is “one of several” that the administration has taken note of.
Coskun told the newspaper that if he loses the case, he may be forced to “flee” Britain and seek protection in the United States. “As a victim of Islamic terror, I cannot remain silent,” he said. “I may have no choice but to leave Britain and move to the United States, where President Trump has stood firm for freedom of speech and against Islamic extremism.”
He added that if he is compelled to leave, it would signal that Britain has “fallen victim to Islamism and the restrictions on expression they seek to impose on the non-Muslim world.”
3 View gallery
Holding a burning Quran, Coskun stands outside the Turkish Embassy in London
(Photo: Social media)
The report comes a month after The Telegraph said the Trump administration was discussing the possibility of offering asylum to British Jews amid a rise in antisemitism in the country. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Robert Gerson, told the newspaper that Britain is “no longer a safe place” for Jews and said he had held discussions with the State Department in Washington about granting asylum to Jews fleeing antisemitism in Britain.
The Telegraph noted that such political intervention could further strain U.S.-British relations, amid claims that freedom of speech has been curtailed under the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Lord Young of Acton, secretary-general of the Free Speech Union, a British advocacy group assisting Coskun, said that if prosecutors prevail, it will deal a “death blow” to free speech in Britain.
“If the CPS wins, breaking the Islamic blasphemy code — whether by desecrating a holy book or showing images of Muhammad to a class of children — will become a serious religiously aggravated offense,” Young said. Referring to threats made by Kadri during the attack, he added: “We’ve heard the veto he imposed. Losing this case would create a ‘stabber’s veto.’”