Tag: blasphemy laws

More for Blasphemy Day

May 10, 2017 • 1:00 pm

by Greg Mayer

Following up on the theme for the day, the New York Times reports that in Indonesia, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the governor of Jakarta, has been convicted of blasphemy against Islam, and has been immediately placed in prison to begin his two year sentence while his lawyers appeal the case. Basuki, a Christian and ethnic Chinese, had succeeded to the governorship after his political ally, Joko Widodo, a Muslim, was elected president. Basuki was widely expected to be elected to the governorship outright, until Islamists argued that the Quran forbade Muslims from voting for non-Muslims.

His offense was arguing that a particular Quranic passage could be interpreted in a more enlightened manner than in the way his opponents interpreted it. From an earlier Times article:

[In an address to fishermen] Mr. Basuki lightheartedly cited a verse of the Quran that warns Muslims against taking Christians and Jews as allies. He said at the time that given Indonesia’s transition to democracy in 1999, it was perfectly acceptable for Muslim voters to choose a Christian in the election for governor in February.

A five judge panel has unanimously found that he’s guilty, evidently confirming that the Quran does indeed forbid Muslims from voting for non-Muslims. One of the groups that demanded Basuki be punished for his blasphemy was Hizb ut-Tahrir, which the Times describes as a group that

… rejects democratic governance and says it aims to create a Pan-Islamic state among predominantly Muslim countries, by force if necessary. The group has been tolerated in Indonesia despite openly rejecting the secular, democratically elected government and the pluralist, multireligious national ideology, known as Pancasila.

Andreas Harsono, an Indonesian human rights researcher, summed it up:

“It’s a sad day, and it’s frightening … If the governor of Indonesia’s largest and most complex city, and who is an ally of the Indonesian president, can be brought down and humiliated this way, what will happen to normal Indonesian citizens?”

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JAC: Let me add here that Muslim apologists like Reza Aslan always point to Indonesia as an example of an “enlightened” Muslim country.

Guest post: How to make a mess of modernity

October 21, 2014 • 6:53 am

Reader Grania Spingies, one of the founders of Atheist Ireland, has kindly consented to write about the blasphemy law that is still on the books in Ireland.

How to Make a Mess of Modernity

by Grania Spingies

Ireland should soon be having a referendum on whether to remove blasphemy as a criminal offence from the statute books. A lot of countries have a few strange old laws that haven’t been used in years, but are still on the books because no government has ever thought to remove them. What makes Ireland a little different is that the blasphemy law in its current form came into effect only in in 2009 in a blur of muddle-headed thinking.

The law is a source of both bemusement and merriment here, as it is in practice unenforceable as written. But the law is also an embarrassment as well as a potential danger. Michael Nugent, chair of Atheist Ireland summed it up succinctly:

“Islamic states at the UN have been citing Ireland’s blasphemy law as evidence that modern European states have no problem with outlawing blasphemy just as Islamic states do. You know you are doing something wrong when Pakistan is citing you as best practice for blasphemy laws.”

That’s Pakistan where the death sentence for a Christian woman found guilty of insulting Mohammed under its blasphemy laws has just been upheld by its High Court.

Most people in Ireland probably do not support the idea blasphemy as a a crime, so with a bit of luck the people of Ireland will vote to have this misguided piece of legislation removed. However, Ireland has a strange history when it comes to legislators trying to appease the Catholic church while simultaneously trying to to enact the will of the people.

The current divorce law is a case in point. When people voted to overturn the ban on divorce in 1995 (yes, 1995) the subsequent law made it legal but laborious and difficult by slapping a four-year moratorium on anyone seeking a divorce.

An even worse mess has been created in the most recent attempt to redress the inhumane abortion ban in Ireland, in which a ham-fisted piece of legislation enacted to ostensibly allow for abortion in cases when it would save the life of a pregnant woman has been shown to be brutal and ineffective even in the most desperate of cases. Women who are raped or have fetuses with fatal abnormalities are still required to remain pregnant or leave the country. Women who are suicidal as a result have to prove to a panel of doctors that they are suicidal enough.
The common theme here is this: the Catholic church opposes abortion under any circumstance.

In recent years, attempts have also been made to redress the bizarre situation in Ireland in which the overwhelming majority of schools are Catholic despite being financed by the tax payer. Needless to say, the Church opposes this as well, and issues statements explaining why secularisation of schools must be resisted:

“Since religion deals with matters of fundamental, ultimate concern it follows that the religious response has a priority in all one’s subsequent reasoning and deliberation.”

In case you think the speaker might be defending all religion, he is not: “To equate all religions is, in a real sense, to empty them of any significance.”

Similar solemn and dire warnings have recently been uttered about the potential excising of blasphemy from the Irish Constitution:

“When law enters the arena of morality, it nearly always runs into difficulties … How far can sexual behaviour or same sex marriage or blasphemy or the right of women for personal autonomy be dealt with by the law, except in the limited sense of protecting the vulnerable?”

I regret I can’t afford refunds for any irony meters that have just exploded.

Unfortunately, Irish politicians seem to be cowed by this sort of talk, perhaps because 84% of the population still call themselves Catholic. However, it is a fact almost universally acknowledged that very few Irish Catholics are truly Catholic these days.

Irish blogger Robert Nielson has painstakingly analysed a number or surveys and polls to show just how un-Catholic the average Irish Catholic is today. His findings are very interesting. Certainly very few Irish Catholics pay any attention to the Church’s teaching on sexuality (only 25%), and significant numbers don’t believe in Hell, sin, heaven, life after death or even God. An amazing 62% don’t believe in transubstantiation—or presumably know that they are in fact required to believe it. The most important figure for our purposes is that only 17% say that they would follow the Church’s teaching when making decisions.

So legislators and politicians who cringe at the thought of offending the Church, and by proxy the voters, are in effect flinching at ghosts and shadows. And every flinch costs the Irish people dearly in terms of human rights abuses.

In Ireland the people continue to move towards a more liberal and secular society. In remains to be seen how long it will take to convince timorous politicians to move along with them.

 

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