The Observer reports that visitors to this year’s Edinburgh Festival can expect frequent outburts of blasphemy - all in defiance of the Government’s much maligned Religious Hatred bill.

The list of cabaret acts appearing across the city’s hundreds of fringe venues next month is littered with provocatively titled shows and many top comedians have declared their intention to flout new legislation which will outlaw ‘incitement to religious hatred’. The law, which now looks likely to be on the statute books early next year, is seen as a threat to the right of writers and performers to attack organised religions.

Among those planning to use the festival test the workability of the bill are Stewart Lee, co-creator of Jerry Springer: The Opera; Sikh comedian Paul Chowdhry and Noel Faulkner, the comedian who runs the Comedy Cafe in Shoreditch, east London.

Other comedians at the festival are not planning to explicitly flout the law, but do intend to continue telling religious jokes - such as Danish Muslim, Omar Marzouk.

He says: ‘Muslims should be more active in the fight against terrorism. Why doesn’t anybody use us? For example, to prevent suicide bombings on London buses, just have a Muslim with a fake explosive belt on every bus, so when a real bomber gets on, he’ll go - “Oh, this one’s already taken”.’

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