Ireland Makes Blasphemy Illegal

[Shpongled]

wow.

http://www.palibandaily.com/2009/07/09/ireland-makes-blasphemy-illegal/

Ireland Makes Blasphemy Illegal

Irish atheists are horrified by new legislation making blasphemy illegal, and punishable by a 25,000-Euro fine. Christians of all stripes should be, too.

As part of a revision to defamation legislation, the Dail (Irish Parliament) passed legislation creating a new crime of blasphemy. Update: The bill went to the Seanad on Friday, July 10, passing by a single vote. This attack on free speech, debated for several months in Europe, has gone largely unnoticed in the American press.

The text of the legislation is provided at the end of this post.

How does this impact free speech? Just don’t be rude.

* Atheists can be prosecuted for saying that God is imaginary. That causes outrage.
* Pagans can be prosecuted for saying they left Christianity because God is violent and bloodthirsty, promotes genocide, and permits slavery.
* Christians can be prosecuted for saying that Allah is a moon god, or for drawing a picture of Mohammed, or for saying that Islam is a violent religion which breeds terrorists.
* Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn’t the Messiah.

Is it really THAT big a deal?

Ireland’s Blasphemy Bill not only criminalizes free speech, it also gives the police the authority to confiscate anything deemed “blasphemous”. They may enter and search any premises, with force if needed, upon “reasonable suspicion” that such materials are present.

* The local Freethinkers society, with its copies of Hitchens’ God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
* The video store, with copies of The God Who Wasn’t There.
* The history teacher, who uses The Dark Side of Christian History to teach her class.
* The library, with its collection of books deemed blasphemous.
* Even the homeowner who lets the wrong person know he has a copy of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses could find his door broken in by the Thought Police, his bookshelves ransacked, and his books burning in the front yard!

Satirizing religion in any way, shape, or form, if it “causes outrage”, is now a prosecutable offense in Ireland. Saying anything negative about a religion, if it “causes outrage”, can now be prosecuted as a crime. Just like in Muslim countries.

Witness the return of the Dark Ages.

Update: The bill passed the Seanad on Friday, July 10, by a single vote. From the Irish Times:

Seanad deputy leader Dan Boyle (Green Party) indicated his party’s preference for a constitutional referendum in “the mid-term” on the issue of blasphemy. However, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said he would hazard a guess it was unlikely they would come back to this issue for some time.

The Minister rejected Mr Regan’s contention that the matter of blasphemy could be adequately dealt with by an amendment to the Incitement to Hatred Act, saying what was blasphemous did not necessarily constitute incitement to hatred.

During exchanges with Ivana Bacik, the Minister said he had never in his political career received so many e-mails expressing outrage as he had on this issue. Ms Bacik said under the proposed legislation, Fr Willie Russell from Rathkeale, Co Limerick, a critic of those in his parish who appeared to be worshipping a tree with the appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, could be open to a charge of blasphemy because he had stated that no one could “worship a tree”.

Let’s see if he gets charged.

The text of the legislation:

36. Publication or utterance of blasphemous matter.

(1) A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000. [Amended to €25,000]

(2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if (a) he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion, and (b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.

(3) It shall be a defence to proceedings for an offence under this section for the defendant to prove that a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value in the matter to which the offence relates.

37. Seizure of copies of blasphemous statements.

(1) Where a person is convicted of an offence under section 36, the court may issue a warrant (a) authorising any member of the Garda Siochana to enter (if necessary by the use of reasonable force) at all reasonable times any premises (including a dwelling) at which he or she has reasonable grounds for believing that copies of the statement to which the offence related are to be found, and to search those premises and seize and remove all copies of the statement found therein, (b) directing the seizure and removal by any member of the Garda Siochana of all copies of the statement to which the offence related that are in the possession of any person, © specifying the manner in which copies so seized and removed shall be detained and stored by the Garda Siochana.

(2) A member of the Garda Siochana may (a) enter and search any premises, (b) seize, remove and detain any copy of a statement to which an offence under section 36 relates found therein or in the possession of any person, in accordance with a warrant under subsection (1).

(3) Upon final judgment being given in proceedings for an offence under section 36, anything seized and removed under subsection (2) shall be disposed of in accordance with such directions as the court may give upon an application by a member of the Garda Siochana in that behalf.

This is the sort of thing I’d expect from Christian Dominionist Loren Cunningham, wouldn’t you?

Or how about the wacky City Council of Kissimmee, Florida, who wants to put “In God We Trust” on their city logo . . . to support CAPITALISM?

 

[neal]

jesus christ, thats god damned insane!

 

[Enemy242]

thats straight up fucked.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Fucking disgusting is what it is. I will never go to Ireland while this is the case. Theocracy won't get my money.

 

[Anvil]

Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn’t the Messiah.

REALLY?!

 

[Kvlt Wench]

Disgusting was the word I was thinking as I read that. Wow, I can't even think of anything else to say. Just disgusting.

 

[azal]

good thing I don't live in Ireland because I draw pictures of Mohammed at least once a day.

 

[Shpongled]

My last band had a whiteboard in our rehearsal room and we drew a picture of Mohammad with a cartoon bubble of him saying "Mohommad is a little bitch!" on it. He had a big ol happy smiley grin. It ruled.

 

[Captain Beard]

Haha, I'mma nuke the UK when I take over. I don't give a shit if they're part of it or not.

 

[Godhead59]

That's some WD lyrics material. Really fucked up shit.

 

[derek]

Well, to be fair, there was almost zero support for this in Ireland. It'll probably go to a referendum anyways, and it's going to be intensely difficult to enforce.

@Lordy, I'll nuke Mexico first chance I get, in retaliation. So bye bye Texas. Oh wait...

 

[Dead Winter]

This has been going on for a long, long time...I'm surprised no one has heard about this. I guess Michael Jackson is more important.

Derek's right. It's going to be insanely difficult to enforce and almost the entire country is opposed to it. This shit will never fly unless they want a violent revolution on their hands.

Denying pagans (and everyone else) their right to free speech is basically erasing the country's entire early history and culture. This isn't gonna stick. It's gonna be like the anti-sodomy laws in the US where it's illegal to get a blowjob and fuck someone in the ass.

This just says that if you are such a retard that you burn down embassies because someone offended your religion, you will be rewarded for being said retard by passing laws so you don't get your feelings hurt...because the "civilized" society is a bunch of fucking pansies who are afraid to give religious fundamentalists the finger and tell them their god is a fucking homo.

Ireland is an extremely modern-thinking country; I don't see this lasting. It's strange, though, because Italy is a MUCH more conservative country when it comes to Catholicism, but no one cares what anyone else thinks, and they respect that. You can scream "THE POPE'S A HOMO!!!!" or "FUCK JESUS!!!" or "MOHAMMED FUCKS CAMELS!!!" or whatever in the middle of Rome and no one will give a shit. You might get some funny looks from people who disagree, but other than that no one can take away your right to free speech, which is why I find it strange that Ireland would take such a drastic step when it would be unheard of here.

It's so out of character for them as well. It's truly a strange situation.

 

[Dead Winter]

And while everyone's shocked and mortified right now, it seems that no one decided to do any research on this. This is not a new law. It has been in their Constitution since 1937. Why now is everyone up in arms about it when it's been going on for nearly a century? Oh yeah. Michael Jackson.

http://www.constitution.ie/reports/ConstitutionofIreland.pdf

In case you don't wanna click on the link, I'll post the passage.

Under Article 40.6.i., it states:

The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.

It's just like the blowjob laws in the US...good luck enforcing that shit.

Also, it applies to ANY religion...that includes The Church of Satan and The Flying Spaghetti Monster...yeah this will never be enforced. It's going to be HILARIOUS watching all the Christians squirm and writhe in agony since they can't say anything to the Pagans, Satanists, Wiccans, and Flying Spaghetti Monster followers. Limiting free speech is never a good thing, but if only one good thing comes out of this, at least Christians will finally be forced to shut the fuck up.

 

[Shpongled]

Damn, I'm sorry bro. I apologize for being stupid and not knowing the laws of Ireland. You know, since I spend so much time there and all.

 

[Resonator]

Well, it works like this. The devil hates good things. You hate what they consider good things. You don't want to be the DEVIL, do you?

Just another tool in the meat grinder, trust me. Don't just go a jumpin' in, no matter how bullshit it is. Serenity saves, death in fire is virtuous but goodbye sally if that's the road you choose.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Whoever posts after me, if you're thinking about responding to the above post, please don't.

 

[Resonator]

The problem is that you insinuate yourself as a slave to a system. Why the fuck would you pay 25000 euro's when you can fight it in court? You think some kind of government should tell you what to do?

Fuck off Ireland, fuck off haters. You're both kinda retarded in a way.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

So i was reading a blog on nytimes.com and read this
"Even before the law was signed, a group of Irish atheists began a campaign “for the repeal of this anachronistic and dangerous blasphemy law, and for a referendum to remove the blasphemy reference from the Irish Constitution.” The group’s first step will be to intentionally break the law by publishing a blasphemous statement and defending their right to blaspheme in court."

Lol, "Your honor, I object! Jesus was a bastard cunt!"

 

[Lord Foul]

I take some comfort from this. At least we aren't the only stupid people with stupid laws.

 

[Resonator]

Your honor, I object! Jesus was a bastard cunt!

In a way, he was.

I take some comfort from this. At least we aren't the only stupid people with stupid laws.

http://www.dumblaws.com