{"id":5339,"date":"2009-08-23T16:12:05","date_gmt":"2009-08-23T20:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2009-08-23T16:12:05","modified_gmt":"2009-08-23T20:12:05","slug":"blaspheming-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/blaspheming-in-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Blaspheming in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is to be no more: Ireland introduces a new blasphemy law<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Irish government plans to bring into force a new law in October that critics say is a return to medieval justice.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

Police with a search warrant will be able to enter private premises and use “reasonable force” to obtain incriminating evidence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The truth is, there are already blasphemy laws actively operating in every Western nation: they only prohibit an offence against Islam, though and the penalty is often death at the hands of a demented Muslim. So effective are the existing laws that a new book from Yale Press \u2013 the fearless bastion of controversy and free speech \u2013 is self-censoring itself<\/a> by not publishing the notorious Mohammed cartoons<\/a> in a book about the cartoons.<\/p>\n

At least the new Irish blasphemy law evens things up by prohibiting Christian blasphemy too \u2013 although the penalty is a measly maximum of $39,000, not death.<\/p>\n

Richard Dawkins has an opinion, of course:<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, Richard, since when did you care about civilisation? <\/em>As long as we are evolving, surely that\u2019s all that matters; why are you not happy with the remorseless evolution that produced this new blasphemy law?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is to be no more: Ireland introduces a new blasphemy law: 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,189],"tags":[2080,2178],"class_list":["post-5339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-islam","tag-christianity","tag-islam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}