Remember Harry Taylor, the British man who was tried and found guilty of ‘religiously aggravated harassment’ for leaving some flyers making fun of religion in the prayer room at an airport? He was just sentenced today and got an Anti-Social Behavior Order along with a six month suspended sentence. The ABSO – a creepy little UK legal order basically allowing courts to make legal things illegal – means Taylor is no longer allowed to carry around anti-religion material in public.
Now on one hand I’m happy Taylor didn’t get the potential 7 years jail time his charges could have resulted in. But on the other, much larger pulsing neon hand of WTF, I’m still shocked: a) he was ever charged in the first place, b) he was found guilty of this retarded ‘crime’, and c) barely anyone seemed to care about this story, especially since the Ireland blasphemy thing became such a big deal. But here’s a guy charged, found guilty, and given a criminal record over offending some religious people and barely anyone has said boo.