Tag Archives: blasphemy laws

Blasphemy dismissed

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When Behemoth front-man Adam “Nergal” Darski tore up the Bible during his show, calling Christianity the deadliest cult in human history, he did more than offend his fellow Poles. He was also facing charges of blasphemy in his own country, but luckily, the charges appear to have been dropped.

I was actually surprised by the comments of one Christian who was relieved by this:

Common sense prevails – he tore up a book, good job it wasn’t the Koran! I’m a Catholic and wouldn’t tear up a bible, but he was making a personal comment and someone chose to make political mileage from it. I don’t agree with what he did, but prosecution is going too far.

If Christians were all like this guy, the world would be a lot less shitty…

Interfaith dialog at its finest

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It’s pretty rare I agree with the Pope, but he’s recently been calling on Pakistan to repeal their insane blasphemy laws, and I’m behind him on this one. His calls were met, unsurprisingly, with a friendly “mind your own fucking business”:

The pope has given a statement today that has not only offended the 180 million Muslims in Pakistan, it has also hurt the sentiments of the entire Islamic world,” said Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam.

Man, Muslims are the most overly sensitive annoying jackasses, aren’t they? As soon as you tell them “hey guys, could you turn down the barbarism a notch?” they start flipping the fuck out. It kind of reminds me of a petulant and spoiled child that’s allowed to get away with everything because their parents are divorced. The difference is these childish idiots sentence people to death for talking smack about their dead prophet.

The problem isn’t just the government though: the whole country is pretty messed up, and as soon as a politician tried to open the blasphemy law for debate, he was gunned down while his guards stood by watching.

“There would be an unprecedented reaction in Pakistan if any attempt was made to amend or repeal the law,” Hussain Ahmed said, Reuters reported.

No shit. Remember how religious apologists say it’s politics and not religion itself responsible for all the violence? If the majority of your population thinks murdering individuals who don’t share your faith sensibilities, and slaughter any politician who tries to change the status quo, how can anyone make the claim the problem is with the politics rather than the faith itself?

Pakistan governor murdered over Blasphemy Law reform

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Imagine your loved one gets gunned down for trying to reform a law that makes the lives of people visibly worse, and the murderer is showered with rose petals and celebrated for his actions? Well, for that to happen, you’d have to be in Pakistan, and the law you would have to try and reform would be the blasphemy kind.

Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was attempting to reform the laws in an effort to avoid sentencing people like Asia Bibi to death of for the “crime” of speaking a dead Arab’s name in vain, and as a result, he was murdered. Hated among the hardliners, many of his fellow politicians issued statements claiming his murder was totally justified:

Jamaat-e-Islami, one of Pakistan’s main Islamist political parties, also said Mr Taseer’s assassination was justified. “If the government had removed him from the governorship, there wouldn’t have been the need for someone to shoot him,” it said in a statement.

It doesn’t even look like the people who were supposed to protect him had much interest in doing so:

Pictures of his smiling face dominated the local newspapers, which questioned why five other police protection officers allowed him to pump 40 bullets into Mr Taseer’s body.

40 bullets? I guess the 5 police officers protecting him were out having a coffee break or something.

Do I need to remind everyone Pakistan possesses a nuclear arsenal? Doesn’t it comfort you to know primitive, violent and superstitious morons are in control of devices which are the culmination of our scientific understanding of the Universe?

Islam is totally reasonable

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You remember Pakistan right? It’s the country currently being ruled by a military dictator who happens to be nice and chummy to Islamic groups who like to get women sentenced to death for blasphemy.

They seem to be profoundly confused about what to do regarding the sacredness of the name “Muhammad”, as they’ve recently arrested a man for throwing out a business card of someone who shared the namesake. You can’t make up something this fucking ridiculous.

The case began Friday when Muhammad Faizan, a pharmaceutical company representative, visited Valiyani’s clinic and handed out his business card. He said when the doctor threw the card away, Faizan went to police and filed a complaint that noted his name was the same as the prophet’s.

Pakistan’s minister for minority affairs has said the law is being examined to prevent widespread abuse.

Yeah, you wouldn’t want anyone to just arbitrarily use this law to jail people for absolutely no reason.

It would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact this is a country which has plenty of nuclear warheads to go around, and they get a huge itch every time someone starts drawing a cartoon of their “prophet”. The very fact they even contemplate executing a man for the offense of throwing out a business card with the name Muhammad on it goes to show just how reasonable people are when it comes to their indefensible beliefs. These are the same folks who want everyone else on earth to respect their beliefs. Respect is earned, not given away.

Pakistan woman sentenced for blasphemy

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A few podcasts ago, Ryan and I discussed the case of the world famous “blasphemer”, Asia Bibi of Pakistan, who faces the death penalty for insulting Islam. She’s recently been trying to get a Presidential pardon, which was just rejected by a Pakistani “court” yesterday. The high court barred the President from even attempting to let her off the hook for having supposedly said some hurtful things about a man who’s been dead for over 14 centuries.

There you have it, people: justice is served! It looks like they really want this woman to pay severely for hurting the feelings of those poor defenseless Muslims. Sure, you could argue she has a family, and all of this boils down to over-sensitive religious ass-hats who care more about their imaginary friend than the misery of this poor woman, but if they don’t do something radical now, none of them will get to enjoy all those delicious virgins up in heaven!

The Good Atheist Podcast: EP 135

This week on the bonus show: Why I’m funnier when I’m mad, why Alabama is full of chicken fuckers, and finally how Poland needs to grow some balls and stop trying to jail people for blasphemy (especially when they are hot).

The Good Atheist
The Good Atheist
The Good Atheist Podcast: EP 135
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Polish pop star faces 2 years in jail for blasphemy

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Looks like Poland is joining the list of gutless countries that want to jail people for speaking their minds about religion. The latest victim of this witch hunt is pop star Dorota Rabczewska (known as Doda), who was charged for an interview she did a year ago saying she believed in dinosaurs more than a book written by “people who drank too much wine and smoked herbal cigarettes”. For saying something so innocuous, this Polish goddess is facing up to two years in the slammer.

I know there are still a lot of atheists who find my “in your face” faithlessness a little disturbing, even abrasive at times. But we don’t live in a world where we are free to speak our minds just yet; religious institutions still want to silence our objections, our questions, and our anger. They do this by helping to fashion laws to scare us into silence, and because we are still so poorly represented in most of the world’s government, there’s little we can do to fight this kind of oppression.

Oh, and if you think this smokin’ hot mama is just another bimbo who doesn’t know her ass from her elbow, keep in mind that she is a card carrying member of Mensa (yeah, I know they are useless, but maybe they just want to hang out and feel smart). I’ve never believed in standard intelligence tests, but at the very least it means she isn’t a complete moron. Oh, and if you’re like me and suddenly in love, you’ll have to get through this scary guy to talk to her.

(Update: Her conviction was eventually overturned by EU courts, but it was a tough battle)

Airport blasphemer sentenced

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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.

Saudi Arabia condemns TV host to death for “sorcery”

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If you’ve ever spent time reading tarot cards, playing with a Ouija board, or working for a psychic hotline, I suggest you avoid Saudi Arabia as a travel destination. Recently, Amnesty International has been trying to pressure the government to release a man by the name of Ali Hussain Sibat, who was sentenced to death in November 2009 for the supposed crime of “sorcery”. Sibat had a show on a Beirut satellite TV channel where, before a studio audience, he would predict the future and give advice. If that sounds familiar, it’s basically a Lebanese ripoff of “Crossing Over with John Edward” (if diplomatic relationships fail, can we send them Edward in exchange?).

Now because Islam is a political religion, there’s no rational legal body at work here; instead, a religious court based in outdated and superstitious laws are responsible for punishing offenders, and punish they do. A court in Medina convicted Sibat of witchcraft, and in accordance to their holy text, his sentence is nothing less than execution. There you have it folks, the Koran doesn’t mess around with issues of legality, human rights or even common sense; as far as the book and its murderous peddlers are concerned, you need to kill witches, and fast (Sibat tried to appeal this decision, but it didn’t take long for them to be overturned)!

I can’t imagine a clearer example of why religion and politics don’t mix; a father of 5 is being sentenced to death for the crime of reading dumb people their fortunes on TV. Yep, the world is officially fucked up.

(Update: Sibat was apparently allowed to return to his native country of Lebanon, but that has yet to be confirmed)

The Good Atheist Podcast: EP 124

This episode, Ryan and I discuss death from an atheist perspective. A prom in Mississippi cancelled due to lesbianism, and England’s ridiculous blasphemy laws. We also discuss “The Mist” and “End of the Line”.

The Good Atheist
The Good Atheist
The Good Atheist Podcast: EP 124
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Atheist faces serious jail time for offending religious people

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If religionists offend us by calling atheists “immoral”, “scummy” or just plain “evil”, we do what any rational and confident person of sound judgement does: we ignore them (or if you’re like me, you write steamy vitriol in your pathetic blog). That’s usually the extent of our outrage, but for religious folks, who benefit from the tyranny of their majority, the inverse reaction to being offended is not so muted.

Take the example of Harry Taylor, who left sexually explicit images of religious figures in the prayer room of John Lennon Airport (the irony, it burns!). He’s been  recently convicted of “aggravated intentional harassment” (is there any other kind of harassment other than intentional?). Although it might sound like a pretty mild charge, it carries with it a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. Yes, you heard right, Mr. Taylor could go to jail for almost a decade for offending a priest in an airport named after a guy who’s most popular song extols the joys of living in a world without religion. My head is officially about to explode.

The Crown Prosecution is trying to defend this draconian law, saying it looks at each case based on its own merits. What fucking merit is there in convicting a man for offending someone? No one has a right to “not be offended”. You live in a world where people have different opinions and ideas, and it’s inevitable some of those will offend you. Fucking deal with it.

The British government is cowardly for allowing such a law to exist, and it’s citizens should be ashamed such a case was even prosecuted. For a so-called “secular” country, you have a lot of house cleaning to do.

Irish Atheists go on the offensive

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Remember Ireland’s blasphemy law “reform”? A few months ago I reported that the Irish government had proposed changing their existing Defamation Bill (which made blasphemy a crime punishable by jail time) into something a little more profitable. Irish atheists have decided to challenge this new law, which states that any blasphemy can be punished with a fine of up to €25,000. They published a number of quotes from notable artists Bjork, Salman Rushdie and Mark Twain. They hope by baiting the government, they can force them to repeal this insane law.

A person breaks the law by saying or publishing anything “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.”

It’s a pretty badass move on their part, and I sincerely hope the government takes the bait. There’s no better way to expose this cowardly law for the free speech killer it is. If religions are so convinced they have the unalterable truth, why the fuck are they so scared of dissent? If they really do have the truth, wouldn’t they benefit from us challenging them if we’re so wrong?

I Love Kiwis!

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Apart from the amazing fact there are more women than men in this tiny country (this fact in itself should encourage you to visit, guys), the country’s atheist population is surging. According to this article, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, is essentially non-religious (his predecessor was also agnostic), and his whole country is becoming more and more secular. It’s estimated if the current irreligious trend continues, Atheism will overtake Christianity is about 10 years.

Now before everyone pats themselves on the back for making such inroads into godlessness, there are a few caveats which prevent me from declaring New Zealand the mecca of atheism. The biggest shame is their blasphemy law, which makes it illegal to publish materials that vilify, ridicule, or offend Christians.

We have the same cowardly laws here in Canada as well, although because of our perceived “cultural diversity”, it can be twisted to incorporate just about any religion. The only way to defend yourself against this terrible law is to have expressed yourself in “good faith and decent language”. In other words, I’m not allowed to say “fuck you, Christianity, and shove your false self righteousness so far up your ass that even your pathetic man-god can’t find it”. (note, our laws have since been changed!)

Fight back against this kind of bullshit, Kiwis! Don’t let yourselves be bullied by insecure, overly litigious Christians who hate it when they are told their beliefs are wrong. 10 years isn’t really too far away, so it’s time to make plans for what happens after you dethrone these religious zealots. May I suggest eliminating that stupid law first?

Ireland is messed up

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With the country still feeling the impact of the Ryan report, which chronicled decades of mental and sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the government has acted swiftly in light of these events and passed a new “blasphemy law”, which would make disparaging religion a criminal offence. The law seeks to punish offenders with a fine of up to €25,000.

The law is surely going to blow up in their faces. By trying to defend the church with this poorly conceived blasphemy law, the government now has to enforce an edict that will turn out to be a political quagmire. To be fair, a blasphemy law was already in effect, but the changes were made to avoid a costly referendum to remove this unpleasant piece of legislature. Still, it only enforces the perception that the Catholic Church has far too much power in Ireland, and this law at the very least gives the growing secular movement in the country more fodder in calling for the separation of Church and State. How can any country consider themselves modern and ‘free’ when they seek to punish their own citizens for simply refusing to respect ancient superstitions? It’s downright pathetic.

The government claims the law is meant also to protect other faiths. Does Reiki, astral projection and other moronic belief systems qualify as well? Why don’t we also make it illegal to make fun of people who think Friday the 13th is unlucky? If the whole purpose of this law is to demonstrate how weak the church has become by involving the government in their petty disputes, then they’ve succeeded brilliantly.