A ruling in Britain stokes fears of backdoor blasphemy laws

[ThatRobGuy]

Hamit Coskun fined after burning a copy of the Quran in London

Hamit Coskun shouted abusive comments about Islam as he held the flaming Islamic text aloft.

www.bbc.com

Criminalising Koran burning would be reintroducing blasphemy law, court told

Hamit Coskun is on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

uk.news.yahoo.com

A Humanists UK spokesperson has said the case does "raise concerns" and the bar for prosecutions is too low.

They said: "When blasphemy laws were repealed in 2008, it was a victory for freedom of expression.

"We must make sure that public order legislation is not used to disproportionately target speech – even offensive speech – on religious matters, thereby chilling legitimate criticism and expression."

 

[BCP1928]

Hamit Coskun fined after burning a copy of the Quran in London

Hamit Coskun shouted abusive comments about Islam as he held the flaming Islamic text aloft.

www.bbc.com

Criminalising Koran burning would be reintroducing blasphemy law, court told

Hamit Coskun is on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

uk.news.yahoo.com

A Humanists UK spokesperson has said the case does "raise concerns" and the bar for prosecutions is too low.

They said: "When blasphemy laws were repealed in 2008, it was a victory for freedom of expression.

"We must make sure that public order legislation is not used to disproportionately target speech – even offensive speech – on religious matters, thereby chilling legitimate criticism and expression."

Can't happen here. At least not until Trump's DOJ task force finishes its work on who is really a Christian.

 

[durangodawood]

Why do Muslims seem to go completely insane over insults to their holy things to a degree not seen among other faiths?

Hopefully this guy ends up with just a citation for burning stuff on a public walk, which does seem kind of dangerous.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Can't happen here. At least not until Trump's DOJ task force finishes its work on who is really a Christian.

Even if that were true, that isn't really the scenario being discussed.

The religion of the man in question who got in trouble is "none/Atheist" And he was of middle-eastern descent.

So this was more of a broader "insulating religion from secular protest".

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Why do Muslims seem to go completely insane over insults to their holy things to a degree not seen among other faiths?

Hopefully this guy ends up with just a citation for burning stuff on a public walk, which does seem kind of dangerous.

It's the doctrine.

Sam Harris gave a talk the one time where he said his fellow progressives dropped the ball by "denying the link between doctrine and behavior", or by trying to force even-handedness (ex: the "Well, all religions have their extremists" talking points often used as a rebuttal)


There are some aspects of Islamic doctrine pertaining to apostates and punishments for those who insult the faith and/or the prophet, that are simply more pronounced than they are in their other religious counterparts.


I think deep down people understand that even if they don't admit it directly.

Sometimes, their defenses and rationales will accidentally expose their hand.

For instance, when people publicly criticized the "Draw Muhammed" contest, or said it was irresponsible for Trey Parker to poke fun at Islam and wanted the episode pulled, based on the premise that "It's just going to incite them and potentially cause people to lash out, you should just avoid doing that so it won't cause problems", that is a quasi admission that they recognize there's a difference between that religion, and the other ones Trey Parker pokes fun at pretty regularly.

By giving awards to the "Book of Mormon" musical, while also pulling the "visual depiction of Muhammed episode due to fears that it could cause a violent backlash", they were basically just saying "Go ahead and make fun of the Joseph Smith stuff, Mormons are much more laid back and aren't likely to blow up a bus"

 

[RocksInMyHead]

Backdoor Blasphemy

*adds to list of potential band names*

 

[RileyG]

It's the doctrine.

Sam Harris gave a talk the one time where he said his fellow progressives dropped the ball by "denying the link between doctrine and behavior", or by trying to force even-handedness (ex: the "Well, all religions have their extremists" talking points often used as a rebuttal)


There are some aspects of Islamic doctrine pertaining to apostates and punishments for those who insult the faith and/or the prophet, that are simply more pronounced than they are in their other religious counterparts.


I think deep down people understand that even if they don't admit it directly.

Sometimes, their defenses and rationales will accidentally expose their hand.

For instance, when people publicly criticized the "Draw Muhammed" contest, or said it was irresponsible for Trey Parker to poke fun at Islam and wanted the episode pulled, based on the premise that "It's just going to incite them and potentially cause people to lash out, you should just avoid doing that so it won't cause problems", that is a quasi admission that they recognize there's a difference between that religion, and the other ones Trey Parker pokes fun at pretty regularly.

By giving awards to the "Book of Mormon" musical, while also pulling the "visual depiction of Muhammed episode due to fears that it could cause a violent backlash", they were basically just saying "Go ahead and make fun of the Joseph Smith stuff, Mormons are much more laid back and aren't likely to blow up a bus"

Even Muslims in America would react so strongly? I think most would be calmer and more mellow than some extremists, but I could be wrong?

 

[RileyG]

Why do Muslims seem to go completely insane over insults to their holy things to a degree not seen among other faiths?

Hopefully this guy ends up with just a citation for burning stuff on a public walk, which does seem kind of dangerous.

Reminded me of a viral video of a Muslim man working at McDonald’s who had to handle bacon.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Even Muslims in America would react so strongly? I think most would be calmer and more mellow than some extremists, but I could be wrong?

I mentioned that "Draw Muhammed" contest event in particular because it led to a shooting at the Curtis Culwell Center in Texas.

And the surveys among American and British Muslims would seem to indicate that while most would stop short of committing actual violence as a response, they still have views that are contrary to that of Westernized societies.

For example, the survey that was done that indicated that over 60% of them thought the Danish cartoonist should be imprisoned for insulting their faith.

While saying "they should just be imprisoned, but we wouldn't kill them" is a marginal step up from where the attitudes are at among their counterparts in the middle east, it's still not exactly a glowing sales pitch.

 

[RileyG]

I mentioned that "Draw Muhammed" contest event in particular because it led to a shooting at the Curtis Culwell Center in Texas.

And the surveys among American and British Muslims would seem to indicate that while most would stop short of committing actual violence as a response, they still have views that are contrary to that of Westernized societies.

For example, the survey that was done that indicated that over 60% of them thought the Danish cartoonist should be imprisoned for insulting their faith.

While saying "they should just be imprisoned, but we wouldn't them" is a marginal step up from where the attitudes are at the middle east, it's still not exactly a glowing sales pitch.

Yikes!