Scott Burgess outlines the new procedures put in place by the Church in Wales for dealing with sudden outbreaks of dangerous free speech: Case Study: How a Muslim Offence Emergency was Defused by Experts.

The Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, still sounds a bit shaken as he recalls his reaction to the “gross error of judgement”:

“When I saw it I was horrified.”

As well he might have been, for to consider the potential effect of this grotesque image - especially in a publication with Y Llan’s influence - is chilling indeed. An emergency response was clearly called for. Thankfully, the Church had already developed a strategy, dubbed “CCC”, specifically designed to deal with a potential Muslim Offence Emergency (MOE) situation.

As it seems likely that MOE response will assume increasing importance for all organisations in the coming decades, use of the Y Llan events as a case study is invaluable - organisations which adopt a strategy modelled on that of the church may well be spared trouble, while those who do not risk having their products boycotted, their buildings burnt and their representatives beheaded.

The recommended CCC response to an MOE or a potential MOE rests upon three pillars:

Containment - Inappropriate material, information and opinions must be prevented from infecting public discourse.

Culpability - Those who allow such material to be disseminated must be named and punished. Whether such dissemination springs from a deliberate attempt to offend is immaterial.

Contrition - Muslim leaders should be sought out and apologised to, preferably on more than one occasion.