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.
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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?
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Have you people thought about iconoclasms ?
On a lighter note, I hope nobody gets fined for blasphemy for decrying the Virgin Mary Stump in Limerick!
Blasphemy is an instant ticket to hell anyway. Is the Irish Gov saying that gods punishment isn’t good enough? This surely must be blasphemous in itself? A 25,000 euro fine on the Irish Gov.
This was brought in to protect MUSLIMS, and nobody else. It was brought in so that the ongoing INVASION of every white country on Earth, by third worlders, can continue as planned, clearly against the will of the majority of the population of every white country on Earth.
This is not a joke – it is going to turn all of Europe into a battlefield. Clearly muslims do not want to ‘assimilate’, they have made their goal very clear – to take over OUR countries, since they have ruined their own…
Islam is a wicked and evil ‘faith’. The ‘prophet’ of Islam was a mass murderer, multiple rapist, and a paedophile. Do some research. This bill is all about protecting Islam from anybody pointing out how evil and sick it is, and that is all.
http://www.prophetofdoom.net
If you look on youtube for a guy called alex jones you will find out why this bullshit is being passed,the truth about 9/11,7/7 bombings, aspartame in coke chewinggum,flouride in the water,mercury in vacines,swine flu,and many many other unbelievable things,our politicians are corrupt scumbags that need to be stopped.
So, as a metalhead with a hard drive full of “pagan music”, I’m now an outlaw. Great. You now, this is the kind of law that actually makes me want to pump up the volume so all the neighbors can hear.
Can I get a fine for wearing a Judas Priest TShirt ? Meaning, if there’s one priest per church in Ireland, that’s offensive to a lot of people.
Well, I guess the Enlightenment was a waste of time then. Being an intelligent Atheist in Ireland is like being a human on the planet of the apes. Take your stupid religion and your blasphemy laws and bang them up your **se.
Re: The various people here no longer wishing to visit Ireland, believing that all religious discourse has been cut off in Ireland and that various works of satire are now banned in Ireland …
Oh, and it being duly noted that you exist in a position of great expertise not living in the jurisdiction …
A suggested remedial step for you: engage senior counsel called to the Bar of Ireland and eh, get them to go through the law with you. If you can get your barrister to slowly mouth each syllable so you digest it all better, then bully you.
But before then; have a nice hot cup of ‘Shut the F**k Up.’ Really, it’s actually tiresome watching you lot build up strawmen and then tearing them down with such aplomb. Such laziness – can’t you people actually engage with this legislation meaningfully?
Regards,
Those of us who can read law. And it’s an unwelcome law, but there’s no way in hell that it’s the same law you lot are talking about.
PS: If you want a repugnant law to cite that should make Ireland a pariah state amongst the community of nations I present to you: The Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009
http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2009/4509/b4509d.pdf
Wow. More strawmen actually got erected while I was writing that. I weep.
Yeah, you’re an outlaw now for your Pagan music collection. Call me a Roflcopter folks. This sh*t is bananas.
Finally! Some should know better than to get on their high horse. Who here is from the United Kingdom? Are you aware of the common law crime of … blasphemous libel? It existed as an offence up until, well, 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemous_libel
So, er, Monty Python. Yeah. It was produced … when?
Before 2008, I believe.
Well, God Damn. Oops: I guess that means I cannot travel to Ireland. Oh well, I did not really plan to go there anyway.
Anyone could have seen this coming.
In all of Europe, the place that has the littlest genetic matter from beautiful inland peoples, particularly the proto-indo-european people and to a lesser extent the proto-uralic people, is Ireland. Only during the celtic migration did some of the PIEs enter the island, settling mainly in the eastern part. The indigenous inhabitants of Ireland are, for the most part, vulgar-looking and have theocratic temperament, theocracy being a vulgar ideal. Ireland was therefore predisposed to theocracy from the start.
In more recent years, theocrats in many places have taken to breeding at a high rate, whereas comparatively rational people have been more negligent to breeding than they were in the past. This is true not only of Ireland, but of pretty much all places in the world at the current time.
It was therefore only a matter of time in Ireland before the fanatics’ evil seed reached voting age and put their own kind into the majority of legislative seats. Ireland is just the beginning. This will happen in other jurisdictions as well if the secularists continue to make so few offspring.
I thought blasphemy was a victimles crime….
This is a classic, the EX prime minister is obviously seeking attention. He’s has already expressed very publicly that he’s totally bored with his now far diminished role after the glory days when the economy was overinflated.
So I guess it wasn’t enough to act like a stereotypical compulsive horse racing gambler and totally overinflate the economy sending us in to the most extreme boom and bust in the world. Now he has to cement our already abissmal diplomatic image by regurgitating an ancient emotive debate.
Of course this all serves to successfully distracting the general public from the truly critical issue of the the day, the LISBON TREATY REFERENDUM!! We are the only country in Europe who get to vote, and it’s today!! You see, there are some good things about our constitution …
http://blasphemy.ie/
Hmmm.. What’s next?
All dyslexic’s be very afraid, for if you mistakenly say you worship Dog, the Inquisition will find you.
Could it be a blasphemy for a Spanish speaking person to say “hey zeus” ?
Finally, pity the anthropologist who works for National Geographic, who writes about the evolution of the Easter Bunny! He will be marked for death!
“Well, obviously it’s not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Life_of_Brian
I think I shall become a vegetareist who worships only leeks.
The bible does say “the leek shall inherit the earth.
Would I be prosecuted in Ireland for public leeking?
This is grounds for a violent revolt. People in Ireland should forcible enter the houses of legislators that pass this bill, cease their entire families, and burn them at the stake.
I cannot believe this is happening today anywhere, much less in an area so close to many of the countries we deem to be among the most liberal. It’s just surreal. I think it’s an abomination, and disgusting. How dare they deem that anyone’s beliefs or rights are more respectable than others’ are? That is the core point, and that’s what makes it abhorrent all on its own. But then when you consider that it’s actually ILLEGAL to say that there’s no magic being controlling and watching over everything, and that a human didn’t magically spring from a virgin, able to raise the dead and break other fundamental laws of nature…it’s absurd. I’m at a loss for anything to say right now.
The Irish Republic is effectively still being run by the Catholic church, this is the same country that remained neutral in WW2, the same country that even recently refused to apply the rule of law to its numerous pedo priests and abusive nuns; the 12% of the country that were protestant when the country was founded have now been driven out too, less than 1% remain now.
I am from Northern Ireland, we have plenty of problems here but the Republic of Ireland is and always has been ruled by Rome and as such no-one should be surprised by archaic and twisted laws like this one, which are designed to increase and perpetuate the power of catholicism. It is not a secular state, it is an extreme example of what can happen when a ridiculous religion is placed at the center of a constitution and basically made compulsory for its oppressed citizens.
I’m from Ireland and think this is unbelievable! This law is not new, by the way! Just that the fine was recently reduced from €100,000 to €25,000. It is a joke! It takes away free speak of religion!
The government here are COMPLETE idiots.
I hate here. ha!
Ok – first of, scrapping my plans for an Irish holiday, as my kin have clearly lost their bloody minds. The Irish Tourism Ministry should take note of this…
Secondly, the law cancels itself out. Under Section 2:
“(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.”
The key words being ANY religion. Since all religions basically blaspheme all other religions, the point is moot.
I’ve always known that the irish are a bunch of religious zealots, that’s pretty plain. The fact that they’re legislating their particular brand of zealotry is beyond stupid, it’s suicidal.
I was curious about seeing Ireland on my worldly trips, but now ?, if this is true and correct, I am now never going to Ireland, purely on principle, or if this ridiculous law is changed. also I think I will heckle any Irish folk I meet, until they get their country to change the law. I’m with Jonathan boycottireland.org
1984, V for vendetta, equilibrium, this is the start of everything horrible, fascist and dystopian in fiction. where does it begin? where does it end? which is the religion that isn’t considered blasphemy?… argh! its making me mad now, the very idea of it.
If this law were enforced(after of course defining blasphemy);then judging from the number of death threats I’ve had from deriding Islam, my whole pension would go down the toilet.
Blasphemy has no place in the 21st century.
I’m taking investors for my “Life of Mo cartoon”
Snackie, if you’re serious, please keep us informed on your project . . . we’d be happy to feature your drawings, or even serialize your storyboards for you.
Or, simply register on this site (CLICK HERE). You’ll immediately have “Contributor” status, which means you can write posts and submit them for review. After a Moderator or Administrator approves them, they’ll be live on the site for all to see!
Who thinks the Fianna Fail front bench today are a disgrace and should have tendered their resignations rather than be associated with Dermot Ahern’s blasphemy legislation? There is one reason and one reason only that such legislation is being pursued by Fianna Fail and that is to gofer for vicious tyrants that want people who criticize Islam killed and gays and lesbians thrown off mountains. Well nice one Dermot, you have proved modern Fianna Fail has precisely no connection with Irish Republicanism.
Please join http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59673946769&ref=ts
Viewer Advisory Caution, actual torture scenes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVrAaiQABjE
Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer
Gees, what are you people so worried about. Blaspheme against God, right than prove it is actually blasphemy but getting God to testify in court that it is blasphemy. My beliefs, your beliefs, their beliefs, which are the truths, which are the legal factual truths that can be stated as being infringed, only the Gods of each religion, can legally state what does or does not constitute blasphemy, everything else is just differences in opinion.
I encourage anyone: ignore this law. Say whatever you want about non-existent “god” garbage or “christian” fantasy garbage. Let’s see if they would really use deadly force. Any Irish police officer or judge who would use deadly force to kidnap you and throw you in prison would deserve to be tortured, bombed, and exterminated. If their cause is to outlaw speech they disagree with, then they deserve to suffer and die for it.
Anyone who would try to force this political opinion down anyone’s throat
has no right to complain about “war” or “terrorism” or any of that frivolous imaginary garbage.
There is no such thing as “terrorism”, either. Everyone is a soldier. Some of us, such as atheists, fight for the right side.
This is why the Irish Republican Army are heroes. Putting a bomb in a bar and blowing the limbs off some christian is insignificant, because christians cannot compute cause and effect. They enjoy getting their limbs blown off. That’s very funny to me. They do not have the mental capacity to comprehend that the free speech consequences of talking about god not existing are the same as talking about god existing.
I have the legal right to support nuking Ireland if anyone tried to kidnap people over frivolous “blasphemy” charges. That is *my* United States First Amendment legal right to speak any of MY political opinions, such as this.
May I suggest a more constructive approach?
Why not join the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, or, if you are so inclined, American Atheists?
Oh, and subscribe to our RSS feed. But I don’t really have to say that part, do I?
Shame on you Ireland! Non-theists, such as Buddhists, are also in danger here.
… and in related news, “Cead Mille Failté” will now be replaced with “Níl a fhios ag aon duine na Éireann Coimisiún Fiosrúcháin!”.
“Nobody expects the Irish Inquisition!”
– Mark
i think its a master stroke a text book move from goverments PR machine to divert the country and the media at large from that “God” awful recession i mean its so laughable its like a scene cut from the “quiet man”
i smell a revolution in ireland and the medias rise of ‘athiest terrorists’ lol
Oddly enough, I am leaning toward supporting this legislation.
Think it through: Let’s imagine for a moment that there is a religion that finds even the mere mention of another religion blasphemous. Now imagine that there are two such religions and they are mutually exclusive.
The only way to avoid being a criminal is by not ever mentioning any religion again.
If these two religions don’t already exist, I suggest we add some new dogma to the Pastafarian and Jedi religions which would both happily accept the additions if they got rid of the insanity.
As for going to Ireland… my religion has a god named “You’re under arrest” so a policeman would not be able to arrest me without blaspheming.
Hey Pastor Mike, why did you leave out Muslims from your list in your article? This does affect them just as much as any other religious group or non-religious.
Or maybe it’s the fact that you’re a hate filled piece of shit that gets to you.
I like how some idiots (Islam haters as usual), come out and seem to think it’s about shutting down criticism of Islam? When the truth is this law has been in limbo for centuries. And also the fact that none of the politicians are Muslims? Or maybe they’re secretly all working for Al-Qaeda and you just don’t know about it.
Carry on supporting your Christian aggression for oil and money in the Middle East, carry on supporting your Zionist money lenders who steal land in the Middle East under the guise of “God promised it to us”, the very definition of extremism.
You’re hypocrites.
Wow, got a bit of a chip on your shoulder?
Which group was it that issued fatwahs because of their “prophet” being drawn in a cartoon, and had people killed over it? Remind us.
I look forward to your intelligent reply.
You’re a hypocrite
Based on what, exactly, is she a hypocrite? Do you even know what the word means?
I just made a new religion and in this religion any and all speaking in Ireland is Blasphemy. My lord demands a silent country. As the bill clearly says “ANY” religion I do believe all of Ireland is now in violation of anti-blasphemy laws!
[...] As we reported in July, the Irish Constitution has always held a reference to the illegality of blasphemy. However, there was no punishment and no mechanism for enforcement specified. It was largely considered an anachronism . . . until 2009, when Ireland’s elected bodies decided to fix the problem not by sponsoring a referendum to remove the language, but by providing the opportunity for enforcement and punishment! [...]
This is by a longshot the silliest thing i’ve ever heard,so atheists arent aloud express there beliefs but were allowed have religion forced down our throats without the right to argue our freedom of speech?
so if its illegal to say that god is’nt real its only fair that its illegal for a christian to tell me there is a god right?
[...] Source: http://www.palibandaily.com/2009/07/09/ireland-makes-blasphemy-illegal/ [...]