Make blasphemy universally illegal

[beso]

The President of Indonesia is at the United Nations General Assembly and has proposed an international law to make blasphemy illegal.

No particular question but I am sure some of you would like to comment.

[starone]

I'll have to sew my lips together with some very strong thread. How do they think they will be able to enforce this - it is bad enough now with too few policemen. We shall need one standing on the corner of every street.

[beso]

WaldoMcFroog //Since the Islamic countries will tend to support such a measure, there is a real danger that such a law might get passed. //

Yes and since blasphemy is only possible against true religion then they will only be concerned with those who offend Islam.

[naomi24]

As I said, it would be unworkable. It would mean that according to Islam, every Christian who believes that Jesus is God would be committing blasphemy and hence, breaking the law.

[dickythecook]

So if I have got this right then, God, the One true God, or the Gods that exist can do what the heck they like to us and we cannot speak out against this despicable treatment. Meanwhile anybody can appoint themself as a spokesperson for these deities and tell us what we can or cannot say. So much for freedom of speech and thought. What if we took all these people who speak for the 'gods' and put them all together on an island somewhere for a few years to resolve all the differences and see how the rest of humanity get on without them? I think perhaps the gods would enjoy the break as well, assuming that they exist. If they don't we still have a win situation.

[jomifl]

Don't worry Dicky, the queues outside the lawcourts would be so long that no-one would get tried in their own lifetime. Unless the penalty is summary execution I can't see it working :-)

[RATTER15]

Hindus claim that there are 330 million gods. I cant name them all off the top of my head, sorry!

[sandyRoe]

After the recent outrage in St Basil's Cathedral there's a call in the Russian parliament to make it illegal there too.

[naomi24]

^^ link?

[ludwig]

// ..proposed an international law to make blasphemy illegal. //

Posturing to make himself look good back home. I don't think there's any serious chance of it happeneing.

[mibn2cweus]

Chakka35
Why does anyone imagine that the eccentric views of the President of Indonesia are of any importance, or that the UN has the power to pass such a universal law? Relax, folks.
17:09 Sun 30th Sep 2012

jomifl
Don't worry Dicky, the queues outside the lawcourts would be so long that no-one would get tried in their own lifetime. Unless the penalty is summary execution I can't see it working :-)
08:17 Mon 01st Oct 2012


Starbuckone
...How do they think they will be able to enforce this - it is bad enough now with too few policemen. We shall need one standing on the corner of every street.
00:38 Mon 01st Oct 2012

ludwig
...I don't think there's any serious chance of it happeneing.
09:28 Mon 01st Oct 2012

This thread reads ominously like a list of Jewish quotations made just prior to the onset of the holocaust.

It would seem that the most difficult reality for otherwise rational people to grasp is the potential of those far less rational but no less determined than themselves, in sufficient numbers, to pursue a mutually preferred delusion. Throughout history, the innocent have made themselves victims of their own refusal to contemplate and acknowledge the depravity of those in pursuit of an equally depraved cause. Your refusal to consider the unthinkable is their most powerful weapon against you."I don't think there's any serious chance of it happeneing."

[boxtops]

"It can only be blasphemy if it is of the One True God"

not correct - you can take the name of any revered deity or being in vain, it would be blasphemous to believers. Insulting Mohammed (who is not Allah) offends Muslims.

[sandyRoe]

Here's the link

http://www.dnaindia.c...blasphemy-law_1745472

[naomi24]

Sandyroe, that headline is misleading – and so is the content of the report. The government doesn’t appear to be proposing to legislate against blasphemy – rather against intimidation and criminal damage. Not the same thing at all.

Boxy, // "It can only be blasphemy if it is of the One True God"//

//not correct//

It's absolutely correct because they all think theirs is the 'one true god. What a headache for the judge!

[JonnyBoy12]

Well, you will have to ban all bedroom activities then as that is who people call out to when they climax!

[birdie1971]

Boxtops - “... you can take the name of any revered deity or being in vain, it would be blasphemous to believers...”

How does one classify 'any revered deity'? Revered by how many people? Is one enough for the proposed legislation to be invoked?

Bearing in mind that there are thousands of contemporary (oxymoronically speaking) Hindu gods and literally tens of thousands of other less well known Scandinavian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, etc. 'gods' how can anyone define blasphemy in any meaningful sense?

The proposal is simply an attack on free speech.

[birdie1971]

Boxtops - “... Insulting Mohammed (who is not Allah) offends Muslims...”

So what? Lots of things 'offend' muslims. Eating non-Halal meat 'offends' muslims. As does drinking alcohol and not praying to allah five time a day. Many other things 'offend' christians and jews and hindus and sikhs, etc. As an atheist, I am routinely offended by people who seem to think that they can call me and other atheists 'immoral' and threaten to remove our right to freedom of speech.

Everyone with or without a religious conviction is 'offended' by others who do and say things that they themselves do not agree with. That is the price we all pay for living in a free society and I believe it is a price worth paying for and defending. The alternative is the slippery slope into fascism.

[jomifl]

I have been offended often by mormons, JWs, The archbishop of canterbury, the pope, mohammed etc. They can't help it they are just offensive people.

[ludwig]

If a universal law is required at all, it should be one which makes it illegal to make blasphemy illegal.

Blasphemy is a rule that should be internal to a particular religion, like not eating certain foods or doing certain rituals. It should be of no concern whatsoever to anyone who isn't a follower of the that religion.

[jomifl]

Ludwig, my thoughts exactly, if people want to shackle themselves to a set of ludicrous beliefs then that is their choice, not mine. Anyway we would have to have a worldwide law and a list of proscribed sayings or deeds that some people would find blasphemous. I suspect that would be a very long and silly list and difficulties would be encountered when one religion's custom is another's blasphemy. Perhaps the basis of a pythonesque comedy series.

[DaisyNonna]

How? Many religions therefore many blasphemies. Ban mentioning religion? Ergo ban all religious services. Free speech?