Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said after the decision: “The High Court has rightly rejected this wrongheaded attempt to introduce a blasphemy law by the back door.
“However offensive some may have found the Quran-burning protest, it was lawful.
“Criminal law protects people from harm, not from being offended.
“This judgment makes clear that it is not the state’s job to police religious sensibilities. A hostile – even violent – reaction to speech cannot be allowed to determine whether that speech is criminal.
“There must now be a serious review of how and why the CPS originally came to charge a man with causing harassment, alarm and distress to the religion of Islam, and why it chose to pursue this case to the High Court.
“Public confidence demands answers.”