Ireland bans free speech and free religion.

http://www.palibandaily.com/2009/07/...phemy-illegal/

Irish atheists are horrified by new legislation making blasphemy illegal, and punishable by a 25,000-Euro fine. Christians of all stripes should be, too.

As part of a revision to defamation legislation, the Dail (Irish Parliament) passed legislation creating a new crime of blasphemy. This attack on free speech, debated for several months in Europe, has gone largely unnoticed in the American press.

The text of the legislation is provided at the end of this post.

How does this impact free speech? Just don’t be rude.

* Atheists can be prosecuted for saying that God is imaginary. That causes outrage.
* Pagans can be prosecuted for saying they left Christianity because God is violent and bloodthirsty, promotes genocide, and permits slavery.
* Christians can be prosecuted for saying that Allah is a moon god, or for drawing a picture of Mohammed, or for saying that Islam is a violent religion which breeds terrorists.
* Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn’t the Messiah.

Is it really THAT big a deal?

Ireland’s Blasphemy Bill not only criminalizes free speech, it also gives the police the authority to confiscate anything deemed “blasphemous”. They may enter and search any premises, with force if needed, upon “reasonable suspicion” that such materials are present.

* The local Freethinkers society, with its copies of Hitchens’ God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
* The video store, with copies of The God Who Wasn’t There.
* The history teacher, who uses The Dark Side of Christian History to teach her class.
* The library, with its collection of books deemed blasphemous.
* Even the homeowner who lets the wrong person know he has a copy of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses could find his door broken in by the Thought Police, his bookshelves ransacked, and his books burning in the front yard!

Satirizing religion in any way, shape, or form, if it “causes outrage”, is now a prosecutable offense in Ireland. Saying anything negative about a religion, if it “causes outrage”, can now be prosecuted as a crime. Just like in Muslim countries.

Witness the return of the Dark Ages.

Lets hope bull**** like this doesn't spread.

[Tchocky]

A farce, that was.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...250388598.html

In an electronic vote whereby Senators press a button, the Government was defeated by 22 votes to 21 in the 60-member upper house. However, Fianna Fáil whip Diarmuid Wilson immediately requested a walk-through vote which takes about 10 minutes to complete. In that period two Senators, Geraldine Feeney of Fianna Fáil and Deirdre De Burca of the Green Party, had time to get to the chamber and the amendment was defeated by 23 votes to 22. The Bill itself was then passed by the same margin.

[Skybird]

Planned and partially realised EU legislation includes that criticism of religion gets prevented by claiming it is a hate crime, which religious critics could be sued and sentenced for. This was done after immense lobbying to enforce tolerance and support for foreign migration, leaving no other choice to people critical of it than to actively support it. Passive objection to it is illegal, and you can get punished for it.

The church had not much to object, though. It takes the benefit from it, and smiles.

EU sucks. The few reasonable acts it gets together cannot compensate for the massive damages it causes. To hell with it.

I feel badly for you in Europe concerning this issue. The reason is that those that disagree with the policy have little to no recourse in the matter. Having watched the EU at a distance, it seems to me that when the population votes against something the powers 'that be' inevetably nullify the vote and move the issue among themselves. Am I wrong about my analysis? If so let me know.

Anyway my original thought stands...I feel badly for you.

[Thomen]

Reading a bit further about this, it seems that they basically replace one un-enforceable law with another one.

From the comments:

Since every religion’s basic doctrine blasphemes against at least one other religion, Irish atheists now just have to shut up until the theists have all locked each other away, and then there’ll be nobody left to be offended!

Yet more lolchristians, banning free speech.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...nsorship_N.htm

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuania's Parliament on Tuesday approved a censorship bill that aims to keep information about homosexuality away from children, angering gay rights activists who called the measure homophobic.

Basically you can't even say anything about gays there.

What's next? Italy legalizes burning non-christians at the stake?