Ireland is in the process of reviving the crime of blasphemy:
MAJOR new legislation reforming the State’s libel laws and enabling judges to advise juries on the size of damages was passed in the Dáil yesterday.
The Defamation Bill, which also introduces a new crime of blasphemous libel, will come into operation after it is passed by the Seanad later this week and signed into law by President Mary McAleese.
Here’s the text of the bill itself, with the relevant section highlighted:
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.
As one blogger notes, this law would criminalize a broad range of activity:
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.
In fact, the Mohammed Cartoons themselves would be illegal under this law.
While the world moves ahead, it appears that Europe is retreating into the Dark Ages.
This is ridiculous. Aside from the fact that it obliterates free speech, I also am willing to bet that this law won’t be enforced equally to all religions.