I May Be Arrested In Ireland

As of the first day of 2010, it is illegal to speak blasphemy in Ireland. The law was passed in July of 2009, but came into effect just in time for New Year’s. It seems to be a bit of a touchy subject, as the “rules” to the law is that the blasphemy must “intentionally cause outrage” amongst followers of the religion that is targeted. Mind you, at least they’ve broadened to all religions and not just Christianity.

One has to wonder how they enforce such a law. The law that states blasphemy as “publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted”. How would they rate outrage? What number is substantial? And how will they find out if the impact was at all intentional?

There have been many books and comics and speeches made by some by the right of free speech that have offended many people, and sometimes the offense spreads worldwide. The infamous Danish political cartoon, depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed, caused a worldwide outrage among Muslims. Yet in Ireland, Muslims make up a very small two percent of the population. If not all of them are outraged, that amount of people is even less than two percent. That’s less than 84,000 people in a country of more than four million. And who knows how much less? It really depends on how devout and how political the Muslims in Ireland are. Is that enough people to offend to arrest someone for blasphemy? What about very small religious minorities?

The impact caused by that cartoon, by Kurt Westergaard of Denmark, was slightly unforeseen and certainly not intentional. You know, unless he wanted all the death threats and physical assaults on his person. He had people break into his home, and was targeted by al-Qaida. Surely he must be punished under the anti-blasphemy law as well.

What about simple disagreement in religious belief? Seeing as Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the saviour of all mankind, they will hold that belief. But if a person is Jewish, they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. So are a Jewish person’s openly expressed beliefs blasphemous to a Christian and vice-versa? Where is the fine line that decides?

Ironically enough, many countries still have blasphemy laws. Like Canada. We still have an anti-blasphemy law in our criminal code. But no one has been prosecuted for blasphemy in a good seventy years! Shouldn’t our “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication” granted to us through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms override that law? Apparently not, unless your blasphemy is “express[ed] in good faith and in decent language, or [while] attempting to establish by argument used in good faith and conveyed in decent language, an opinion on a religious subject.” Good luck with that.