Category Archives: Ireland

Irish news on the blasphemy law

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First, thank you to Wellboy films for this tip.

It is interesting which religion actually utters a threat about any potential blasphemy. Interesting but not a surprise.

Notice the church actually has a pretty enlightened view on this law, as well as hate speech laws. It is noteworthy that the government of Pakistan has used the Irish law as a sort of a template for it’s own suppression of criticism of religion for UN resolutions.

Here is part II of this same report. By the way, for those of you who do not already know of it, there are some scenes taken from a perfectly charming Irish TV show called, ‘Father Ted’. If you take nothing else from this report do try and watch a few episodes of that. Especially ‘Speed’ and ‘Are You Right There Father Ted’.

Ireland’s new blasphemy law being copied by Pakistan

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Thanks Sean for this.

From Mr. Obrien’s Thinking Emporium

Ireland’s new blasphemy law – which was passed in July 2009 – came into force four days ago on 1 January 2010. It makes blasphemy a crime punishable by a fine of up to €25,000. It has been the subject of some controversy, to say the least. I’m not going to delve into the whole debate here except to say my position on the law is that I’m agin it. The subject of this post is a couple of interesting comments that appeared on this thread at Politics.ie.

‘FutureTaoiseach’ voices a suspicion about the new blasphemy law, which is similar to comments I had made earlier in the same thread:

The radical Islamists want it [the law]. The govt is concerned about a Danish-style cartoon row blowing up in this country. At the UN, Islamic countries are pushing for a global ban on blasphemy.

To which ‘Half Nelson’ helpfully replies:

Statute
For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if 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.

Pakistan’s Submission to UN
State parties shall prohibit by law the uttering of matters that are grossly abusive or insulting to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion (p11.1)

Somebody is watching us.

Indeed. When one of the most illiberal police states in the world is plagirising your country’s laws in order to further its global theocratic agenda, that may be a sign that you’re doing it wrong.

Ireland’s new blasphemy law labeled return to Middle Ages

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From Canada’s National Post:

Peter O’Neil, Europe Correspondent, Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, August 23, 2009

Irish cross

h/t Grace @ Vladtepesblog

DUBLIN — The Irish government plans to bring into force a new law in October that critics say is a return to medieval justice.

The legislation, aimed at providing judges with clear direction on the 1937 Constitution’s blasphemy prohibition, imposes a fine of up to 25,000 euros — about $39,000 — for anyone who “publishes or utters matter that is [intentionally meant to be] 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.”

Police with a search warrant will be able to enter private premises and use “reasonable force” to obtain incriminating evidence.

The initiative has stunned some Irish and international commentators who say it contradicts Ireland’s recent emergence as a more multicultural, tech-savvy country that has in recent years showed its independence from the Roman Catholic church by liberalizing its divorce law.

“It is a wretched, backward, uncivilized regression to the Middle Ages,” said prominent atheist author Richard Dawkins in a statement last month, arguing that the law risks shattering Ireland’s new image as a “modern, civilized . . . green and pleasant silicon valley.”

One Canadian publication lightheartedly warned lawyers attending the Canadian Bar Association’s annual conference in Dublin this month to watch their language as they head out to one of the countless pubs in Ireland’s capital.

A blog in the New York Times, meanwhile, featured in its coverage a YouTube link to a famous blasphemy scene from the Monty Python comedy classic Life of Brian.

While some have noted that even countries like Canada still have their own blasphemy laws still on the books, the prohibition in western countries is typically considered obsolete.

Canada’s last prosecution was in 1935, and the statute is now trumped by free speech provisions in the Charter of Rights.

“You’re not introducing new blasphemy laws in the 21st century,” Michael Nugent, chairman of the group Atheist Ireland, told Canwest News Service.

“There are a lot of countries that have blasphemy laws but typically they aren’t enforced. The United Kingdom abolished theirs last year. These are hangovers from earlier times and certainly in most western countries are anachronisms. Introducing a new blasphemy law seems irresponsible to us.”

Nugent said his group intends to come up with a suitably outrageous blasphemy to challenge the law if Ireland’s justice minister, Dermot Ahern, implements the law — passed by parliament in July — in October.

Ahern has angrily dismissed critics, arguing that, as a republican, he would have preferred to have no blasphemy law at all.

He said he was obliged to come up with clear provisions after the Supreme Court, in a blasphemy ruling a decade ago, dismissed the case because the state had provided no clear definition or sanctions.

A spokesman for Ireland’s legal community, meanwhile, said he accepts Ahern’s rationale that the new law was a logical compromise between doing nothing and holding a referendum.

Ken Murphy, speaking for the Law Society of Ireland, said he doesn’t expect a legal crackdown on blasphemers and suggested that the media reaction is overblown.

“It seems to be more an issue for the international media than it is for the people of Ireland,” he told Canwest News Service.

But the critics are questioning why the government didn’t just live with the legal void.

Media reports say there is no indication that the Roman Catholic church, still reeling from a report earlier this year about widespread sexual abuse at homes for children over many decades, has taken a position on the matter or lobbied government.

“No one can think of a single thundering priest, austere vicar, irate rabbi or miffed mullah ever calling for tougher penalties for blasphemy,” wrote Padraig Reidy in the British newspaper The Guardian.

Atheist Ireland’s Nugent also noted that three previous justice ministers never felt the need to respond to the 1999 court decision.

While Ahern has said the likelihood of a blasphemy prosecution is minimal, Nugent said the law as written creates an incentive for groups to show the kind of widespread “outrage” required to justify a prosecution.

Muslim Europe: the demographic time bomb transforming our continent

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Telegraph News 

Muslim InvasionThe EU is facing an era of vast social change, reports Adrian Michaels, and few politicians are taking notice

Britain and the rest of the European Union are ignoring a demographic time bomb: a recent rush into the EU by migrants, including millions of Muslims, will change the continent beyond recognition over the next two decades, and almost no policy-makers are talking about it.

The numbers are startling. Only 3.2 per cent of Spain’s population was foreign-born in 1998. In 2007 it was 13.4 per cent. Europe’s Muslim population has more than doubled in the past 30 years and will have doubled again by 2015. In Brussels, the top seven baby boys’ names recently were Mohamed, Adam, Rayan, Ayoub, Mehdi, Amine and Hamza.

Europe’s low white birth rate, coupled with faster multiplying migrants, will change fundamentally what we take to mean by European culture and society. The altered population mix has far-reaching implications for education, housing, welfare, labour, the arts and everything in between. It could have a critical impact on foreign policy: a study was submitted to the US Air Force on how America’s relationship with Europe might evolve. Yet EU officials admit that these issues are not receiving the attention they deserve.

Jerome Vignon, the director for employment and social affairs at the European Commission, said that the focus of those running the EU had been on asylum seekers and the control of migration rather than the integration of those already in the bloc. “It has certainly been underestimated – there is a general rhetoric that social integration of migrants should be given as much importance as monitoring the inflow of migrants.” But, he said, the rhetoric had rarely led to policy.

The countries of the EU have long histories of welcoming migrants, but in recent years two significant trends have emerged. Migrants have come increasingly from outside developed economies, and they have come in accelerating numbers.

The growing Muslim population is of particular interest. This is not because Muslims are the only immigrants coming into the EU in large numbers; there are plenty of entrants from all points of the compass. But Muslims represent a particular set of issues beyond the fact that atrocities have been committed in the West in the name of Islam. Continue Reading →

Anti-blasphemy law passes by one vote in Ireland

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I see this as the beginning or perhaps closer to the middle of the process of Balkinization of Ireland. Couple the story below with recent threats against foreigners and the usual North South Irish issues and the upcoming vote for the EU constitution, and you have a recipe for factionalization in Ireland. I hope I am being naive and under informed on this matter.

This article shows that the enemies of freedom are not just Islam and the left. The conservative Christian right here and there seem to have some of the same desire to crush debate and genuine freedom of speech required for a free and democratic not to mention secular society. I find this terrifying. Those who believe in the central pillars required to maintain civilization are being squeezed tighter and tighter by more sides.

I do not know who said this although it is credited to many, but the phrase ‘I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend with my life you’re right to say it’ has become nearly extinct as a popular sentiment and with it, the light of progress, civilization, tolerance and liberalism.

Eeyore for Vlad:

From The Examiner:


On Friday July 11th, 2009, Ireland passed the Defamation Bill by one vote. One of the aspects of this bill would make it illegal to criticize religion… any religion under penalty of fines up to 25,000 Euros. That is the equivalent to nearly $35,000.

When I first heard this story on the internets, I was certain that it was a false story. I read the story, googled it, checked out legitimate Ireland news sites, and double checked more Ireland news sites. The story checks out. It seems that the Blasphemy Clause of the Defamation Bill was challenged in the legislature by an amendment which would delete such a clause. The amendment to delete the clause initially passed by one vote, but a request was made for a “walk-through vote.” During that time two more Senators came in and voted against the amendment to delete the clause. This meant that the clause would stay in the bill. The bill then passed by the same margin.

Here is an excerpt from the Blasphemy Clause:

Section 36

(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.

This part of the bill makes it illegal to criticize any religion either verbally or in writing. Saying anything in which a “substantial number” of followers might find offensive would now be a crime in the Ireland. But the bill goes even further. Here is another excerpt:

Section 37

(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.

The Garda Siochana is the Irish police who can now (under this law) break into people’s homes and confiscate copies of any book which might be critical of any religion. I keep trying to point out that any religious criticism is a crime, because many Christians are critical of differing religions. Atheists are not the only ones being targeted here. Simply claiming that the Pope is not infallible might be considered blasphemous to many Catholics. Claiming that the prophet Joseph Smith was not really visited by angels and given magic golden plates would be blasphemous to Mormons. Mentioning the prophet Mohammad without adding the phrase “peace be upon him” would be considered blasphemous to Muslims. And claiming that Scientology is a sham and that Tom Cruise is crazy would obviously be blasphemous to Scientologists.

What if a Christian claimed that if someone was not saved through Jesus Christ, he or she would spend eternity in Hell? An argument could be made that such a statement and even the Bible itself might be considered blasphemous to other religions. In fact, most religious are blasphemous to other religions. Maybe the Irish police will fine everyone.

Author: Staks Rosch

Staks Rosch is an Examiner from Philadelphia. You can see Staks’s articles on Staks’s Home Page.

Ireland: BBC reports threats against E. Indian community, ‘Leave Ireland’

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BBC reports the following as condenced by Stratfor.com

To understand this blog’s view on this situation please click on ‘The Agendas and Views of this Site’

July 13, 2009
Ireland’s militant group Ulster Defense Association (UDA) threatened the Indian community to leave the country or be attacked, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported July 13. The UDA sent a letter to the Indian Community Center at the Carlisle Methodist Memorial Church in Belfast stating that the group has no sympathy for foreigners and a July 11 and July 12 deadline to leave the country. The letter was also sent to the Belfast Islamic Center and the Polish Association.

I will be posting more on this and its probable causes later today.

Eeyore