These are effectively blasphemy trials dressed up as multi-cultural sensitivity against people criticizing Islam for its abuse of women, etc. becoming a common occurrence in Europe of late. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWw7H4m389o
Re:Free speech in Europe
« Reply #1 on: 2010-11-11 13:53:58 »
This is not in Europe, but this woman has been sentenced to die in Pakistan for blasphemy - "defaming the Prophet Muhammed" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8120142/Christian-woman-sentenced-to-death-in-Pakistan-for-blasphemy.html If anyone knows of any recent or current blasphemy trials anywhere in the world that don't involve Islam, I'd be happy to be educated about it, but as best I can tell Muslims are the only major religious group advocating for blasphemy trials in the world today. As an all purpose infidel, I'm more than happy to agree that all major religions engage in unfair discrimination, but not all are equivalent in the extremes to which they will abuse governmental power in order to do so.
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Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother-of-five, denies blasphemy and told investigators that she was being persecuted for her faith in a country where Christians face routine harassment and discrimination. Christian groups and human rights campaigners condemned the verdict and called for the blasphemy laws to be repealed.
<snip>During the 1880s, the American Secular Union, one of the leading freethought organizations of its day, sponsored several traveling freethought speakers and raised funds to purchase tents in which they could speak, since most halls would not rent to "blasphemers." One of these traveling educators, or "missionaries" as they called themselves, was C. B. Reynolds.
It was on such a tour that C. B. Reynolds pitched his "Liberal Tent" in Boonton, New Jersey, on July 26,1886, intending to lecture there for several nights. Two days later, on July 28, he was arrested for the crime of blasphemy. <snip>
<snip>The Truth Seeker published an examination of New Jersey's religious laws. It found that there the Constitution adopted in 1844 guaranteed both freedom of speech and the press and that "No person shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right merely on account of his religious principles." Blasphemy was, however, a crime punishable by twelve months hard labor or a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars. Further, while the Revised Statutes of New Jersey did not exclude a nonbeliever from testifying, the common law excluded any person who did not believe "there is a God who will punish him if he swears falsely." <snip>
<snip>From the Beverly Banner. Last week an Infidel was mobbed at the town of Boonton, Morris county, his tent destroyed, and he narrowly escaped with his life. The speaker began his remarks by denouncing the Bible, and holding up the Christian religion to ridicule. The ministers of the gospel were sneered at as "lazy cranks," and church people generally denounced. While this is a free country, and everyone is his own master, and allowed to believe and follow such religion as his conscience dictates, still, when a man - if he can be called such - takes a platform and denounces that which is held most sacred by all classes of people, it is time Judge Lynch were allowed to take an upper hand in the conquest. For, where is the class of people who haven't their God? From the lower classes of Central Africa to the highly civilized and cultured inhabitants of Europe and America, each have their own idea as to religion and to a God, and when a man who has fallen so low as to take a public stand and announce it as his belief that there is no God, and no hereafter, and try to persuade, and in some instances succeed, in inducing men and women to follow him in his infamous career, a tar-and-feather overcoat would be too good for him. <snip>
Blasphemy Day is a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to openly express their criticism of, or even disdain for, religion. It was founded in 2009 by Ronald Lindsay, Director of the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York. "We think religious beliefs should be subject to examination and criticism just as political beliefs are, but we have a taboo on religion," he explained in an interview with CNN.[1]
According to USA Today's interview with Justin Trottier, Executive Director of the Ontario chapter of the Center for Inquiry, and a Toronto coordinator of Blasphemy Day, "We're not seeking to offend, but if in the course of dialogue and debate, people become offended, that's not an issue for us. There is no human right not to be offended."[2]
Events worldwide on the first annual Blasphemy Day included an art exhibit in Washington, DC, a free speech festival in Los Angeles, and a "Blasphemy Challenge"[3] on YouTube where individuals were encouraged to upload videos of themselves blaspheming, which resulted in over 1,500 such videos being contributed.
Re:Free speech in Europe
« Reply #4 on: 2010-12-01 10:24:50 »
Islam conquers Sweden. You can't even talk about this in Sweden anymore. The loss of free speech is only the beginning of the problems when Islam conquers your government. Recently the US state of Oklahoma outlawed Sharia Law. Lot's of my liberal friends called it an act of "Islamophobia." Indeed I thought perhaps it was a bit of an over-reaction, seeing how few Muslims currently live there, . . . but then perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps there may be some sense in acting pre-emptively against the world's fastest growing most theocratically oriented religion.
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