PLANS to make incitement to religious hatred a crimeare unworkable and should be dropped from the Government's anti-terrorism Bill, a Labour-dominated Commons committee says today.
The home affairs select committee also criticises moves to rush the legislation through Parliament before Christmas.
MPs will today begin their detailed consideration of the emergency measures brought forward in response to the terrorist atrocities of September 11. They include powers to detain foreign terrorist suspects without trial, a proposal that requires Britain to opt out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Concern about the Bill is growing on several fronts and opposition is expected to be especially strong in the Lords. A joint parliamentary committee has already challenged whether the "public emergency" declared by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is sufficiently serious to warrant such draconian laws.
In the Commons this week, more than 20 Labour rebels are expected to support an amendment tabled by the Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews giving suspects the right to seek judicial review of internment.
The Conservatives also want changes to ensure suspects are deported and not held in Britain for fear that their supporters might take hostages to gain their release.
In its report today, the home affairs committee questions the need for a new law of incitement to "hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious belief".
The Bill provides no definition of "religious belief" or of religion. The offence carries a maximum jail term of seven years. The proposal has been denounced as an attack on free speech and recently prompted fears from Rowan Atkinson and other comedians that they could be prosecuted for lampooning religious figures.
The pressure group Justice said: "Our concern is that these measures, apart from being a sop that the Government wants to throw at the Muslim community, will be divisive, impractical and breach fundamental issues relating to freedom of expression."
The home affairs committee says: "We have not seen sufficient evidence to justify the proposition that extending the law of incitement to include religious as well as racial hatred will work in practice. We see no reason for this measure to be included in this emergency terrorism Bill."
The MPs also question the speed with which the Government intends to push the 125-clause measure through the Commons in just a fortnight.
"A Bill of this length with major implications for civil liberties should not be passed by the House in such a short period and with so little time for detailed examination in committee," says the report.
Despite their worries over the internment powers, the MPs add: "We reluctantly accept that there may be a small category of persons who are suspected international terrorists who cannot be prosecuted, extradited or deported and therefore will have to be detained."
However, the committee attacks the Government for using the anti-terrorism Bill to make it easier to introduce EU justice measures into UK law.
Mr Blunkett acknowledged yesterday that his head was "on the block" if the proposals backfired.
He told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost that the measures were necessary and were not being introduced without misgivings. "No one is trying to do this for the sake of promoting some sort of vitriolic or anti-human rights agenda."