Posts Tagged ‘Civil liberties’

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International Blasphemy Day

September 30th, 2009

blasphemy

Today, 30 September 2009, is International Blasphemy Day, a day created in response to religious groups trying to restrict freedom of speech.In particular, it is a protest against the United Nations non-binding resolution which encourages member states to introduce laws against “defamation of religion”. The resolution was pushed by Islamic countries, probably more in the hope of legitimising the persecution of people inside their own borders than within ours.

muhammad_cartoon

Much of the push for the laws came out of the Danish Cartoon Controversy in 2005. A Danish newspaper published some not terribly amusing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, and Islamist leaders played it for all it was worth to fire up hatred of the West. Some Imams were even responsible for a fake image showing, they claimed, Mohammed dressed as a pig.

Queensland removed its blasphemy law in 1899, with other states doing likewise. Canada, New Zealand and Ireland are among the Western democracies that still have such laws on the books. In Islamic countries, blasphemy can mean a death sentence.

Religions around the world include some spectacularly stupid beliefs. They should be mocked, ridiculed and criticised.Nobody should live in fear of jail or worse for laughing at someone’s religious beliefs, or even just pointing out how idiotic those beliefs are.

Imagine a world without Monty Python’s Life of Brian…

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Sinead’s hand

September 14th, 2009

This Irish ad is starting to gain some well-deserved attention. It’s quite brilliantly done, and is a lovely way to approach the issue.

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Justice prevails for Chris Illingworth

September 9th, 2009

Last year Queensland Police moved to prosecute Chris Illingworth, a Maryborough man, for using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material after he posted the below video to a video sharing site. Note that Illingworth did not make the video, and is not the man in the video. He merely posted a copy onto a website.

Note: You may wish to read this post to the end before you press the play button.

There’s little question that the conduct in the video was stupid – the man is far too vigorous in the swinging and the one-armed stuff is particularly bad with such a young child, though we should note that the baby is happy throughout. The man was prosecuted, but claimed it resulted from psychological problems and was freed on condition he seek counselling. It’s a little scary as I used to swing my nieces in a similar (when they were a bit older, less vigorously, and by two arms, two legs or one arm and one leg) when they were young. I’m sure almost everyone has.

Anyway, back to the Queensland angle… Illingworth was being prosecuted for just sharing the video. He faced up to 20 years in jail for distributing the video, despite the fact he was noting that the conduct shown was irresponsible. Common sense has now prevailed and charges have been dropped. Illingworth is contemplating legal action against those who brought the charges against him. I think he would be right to pursue such action, and if so I hope he wins.

The Age reported that Queensland Police said any Australians who simply view the clip could face a maximum of 10 years in jail. If that report is accurate, the police are idiots.

Sometimes the law makes an ass of itself.

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An Islamic beer martyr?

August 25th, 2009

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has urged a Muslim model who faces being caned for drinking beer to appeal the sentence and not be “so willing” to accept her fate.

The model, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, is set to be punished under a Sharia law which only applies to Muslims in Malaysia. She has chosen not to appeal, and is daring the authorities to cane her in public.

The punishment has now been postponed until after Ramadan, and I’m assuming many politicians and other leaders in Malaysia are hoping desperately that she can be convinced to appeal during that time, as having her appeal and win a lighter punishment is the only way that the Malaysian government can avoid a black eye. The international publicity should the caning proceed will be bad, and if the authorities step down then it will be a blow against the Sharia court system.

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Liberty in the age of terror – A.C. Grayling

August 23rd, 2009

A.C. Grayling's new book

Free speech is the fundamental civil liberty. Without it none of the others can even be claimed or defended without it. That is one reason why there has to be a refusal to allow ‘feeling offended’ to serve as a license to censor the freedom to criticise or satirise.

‘Taking offence’ is a major technique of censorship employed especially by religious organisations and groups. Yet every religion, even the largest, is in a minority in the world at large; most people do not accept or share the sensitivities of any but one of them. If a religion is mature and self-confident, it should be able to bear with the disagreements, opposition, criticism and even ridicule of outsiders. The hysterical and disproportionate Muslim response to the Danish newspaper cartoons, for one example, suggests a profound lack of both those characteristics.

Social and political satire is one of the healthy features of debate in liberal democracies, and so is challenge and criticism. Efforts to silence people who say things you do not like to hear are regressive and unacceptable. Everyone who believes in a free, open and grown-up society should reject attempts to bully others into silence: free speech is imply too important to be compromised by anything other than the very best and most urgent of considerations.

From A.C. Grayling’s Liberty in the age of terror

A.C. Grayling’s collections of essays have been favourites of mine in the past. The essays range across everything from religion to architecture to modern dance, drawing on history and philosophy to illuminate the subject matter. He’s just released a new book, Liberty in the age of terror, a call to defend liberty in an age when Western democracies are stripping it from their citizens in reponse to terrorism. Grayling writes in a wonderfully readable style, unlike many philosophers who seem to think impenetrable text is a sign of a good philosopher. The discussion of the paradox of tolerance, including the distinction between tolerance and indifference, has been the high point for me so far, as I get to the half way point of the book.

This is the sixth bgook by Grayling that I’ve read. I have enjoyed them all, and certainly intend to get more. Any of his books would be a great addition to your reading list and, in the present world, this newest one would be a good place to start.

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Eurovision leads to police investigation

August 22nd, 2009

The Eurovision Song Contest was held back in May, with Norway taking out the top gong with a suitably corny piece of pop. The contest is now in the news again for a somewhat more sinister reason.

The BBC reports:

A number of people in Azerbaijan who voted for a song by neighbouring Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest have been questioned by the police.

One man told the BBC he was accused of being unpatriotic and a “potential security threat”, after he sent a text backing Armenia’s song, Jan Jan.

It seems that tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia are still less than cordial after the 1990s Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the Azeri police want to know why 43 Azeris voted for their neighbours. That the police would be granted access to people’s phone records because of their votes in the Eurovision Song Contest is absurd and scary at the same time.

The Guardian also reports:

“They said it was a matter of national security,” Rovshan Nasirli told Radio Free Europe. “They were trying to put psychological pressure on me, saying things like, ‘You have no sense of ethnic pride. How come you voted for Armenia?’”

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Offensive advertising causes public outrage in Iowa

August 7th, 2009

Adverts on buses in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, resulted in a wave of complaints. People were outraged. How dare such advertising be displayed in public!

State governor Chet Culver expressed his feelings on the highly offensive adverts:

“I was disturbed, personally, by the advertisement and I can understand why other Iowans were also disturbed by the message that it sent.”

The Des Moines Area Regional Transport Authority (DART) removed the adverts from buses on Tuesday. They were, quite simply, too offensive for the public to see. What was the offensive advert that had to be taken down?

WARNING; Image may offend

Horrific, isn’t it? The Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers should be ashamed for such vile hate speech!

What is the right balance of contempt and laughter to aim at DART, Governor Chet Culver, and Iowa?

Via Pharyngula

Updates:

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Thursday thoughts

August 6th, 2009

Plognark's "stupid" graphicTip for idiots: When pretending to be a returned service person at ANZAC Day commemorations, don’t kick up a stink about the service not including Jewish prayers and get your photo in the paper. The Australia New Zealand Military Imposters group hunts these people down, and exposes them to, for example, the newspaper they conned.

A lobbyist for the coal industry in the USA has explained how wonderful mountain-top removal mining is… Apparently there isn’t enough flat land around, and blowing up a mountain-top and using the rubble to fill in some valleys (after taking away the coal) is just the answer! Joe Lucas of Americans for Clean Coal Electricity told the Guardian, “I can take you to places in eastern Kentucky where community services were hampered because of a lack of flat space — to build factories, to build hospitals, even to build schools. In many places, mountain-top mining, if done responsibly, allows for land to be developed for community space.”

The Irish government has passed a law outlawing blasphemy, with a penalty of up to €25,000. Why? The Irish Constitution says that blasphemy is an offence that shall be punishable by law. That law resided in the 1961 Defamation Act, which was being repealed. The Justice Minister said he had to pass a new blasphemy law to avoid leaving “a void”. The Minister has said he doesn’t want the law enforced, but he has to respect the Constitution, so blasphemy must be illegal. He has also said there won’t be a referendum to change the constitution to remove the requirement.

British archaeologist Shimon Gibson has made the startling discovery that using the name Jesus in a press release gets attention. Speaking of a bowl he says is from first century Jerusalem, Gibson says  “It is possible that this type of vessel was used by Jesus to wash his hands before eating”. For anyone who doubted that they had bowls in first century Jerusalem, the evidence is now conclusive.

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The wonderful “The stupid, it burns” graphic is by Plognark and shirts, mugs, etc can be bought at Cafe Press.

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CORRECTION: Islamic “Human Rights” resolution NOT defeated at the UN

March 26th, 2009

See correction below

James Randi reports that the push by Islamic countries to criminalise “defamation of religion”, under the guise of an Islamic Human Rights charter, has failed. It’s the only report of a result I can see, but there are a few earlier stories before the vote.

Background:

Update

It appears Randi was premature. While only 23 of the 47 members votedin favour, abstentions meant that the resolution has been passed. Fortunately it’s a non-binding resolution, but it’s a poor development for people in Islamic countries whose authorities will use it to justify abuse.

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Does Islam have a right not to be criticised?

March 22nd, 2009

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference has proposed an Islamic alternative to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As one might expect, it curtails human rights and freedom, particularly those of women and religious dissenters. It takes criticism of religion and makes it into the crime of “defamation of religion”. It is under the guise of religion that so many Islamic countries abuse their citizens.

One of my favourite authors, the British philosopher A.C. Grayling, has a new article in the Guardian discussing the OIC’s document and its possible effects on free speech.

The OIC dislikes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the very good reason that religion, not excluding their version of it, is a systematic violator of human rights, not least the rights of women – who are one half of the world, a fact the OIC does not notice, or if it does it applies religious arithmetic to solve the problem: one woman is worth half a man. The OIC is trying to change the Universal Declaration of Human Rights accordingly.

It has introduced its own version of “(Hu)Man Rights”: it is an instructive read, and illustrates the importance of abating the nuisance of religion in today’s world. How is this to be done consistently with the right to believe stupid things? By entrenching, and making effective, the principle that whereas you can believe as many stupid things as you like, you are not free to act on those beliefs in ways that harm others.

Head over to the Guardian and have a read.

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