From Ormond Beach, Florida Code of Ordinances § 14-13(b): It shall be unlawful for any person to import, print, exhibit, publish, sell, lease, distribute or circulate any obscene publication, or any publication describing or portraying acts of sadism, propaganda against or belittling the traditional American institutions or folkways, sympathy with crime and the criminal as […]
Archive | Blasphemy
7-Year Blasphemy Sentences Earlier This Year in Tunisia, for Posting Mohammed Cartoons
I missed this story when it happened in April 2012: Two young Tunisians have been sentenced to seven years in prison for posting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook …. The two were sentenced to seven years in prison for a “violation of morality, and disturbing public order,” said Chokri Nefti, a Justice Ministry […]
3-Year Sentence for Blasphemy in Egypt
Al Arabiya reports: An Egyptian Copt arrested on suspicion of posting online an anti-Islam film that ignited Muslim protests around the world was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison, a court source said Computer science graduate Alber Saber, 27, was arrested at his Cairo home on Sept. 13 after neighbours accused him of […]
Turkish Broadcaster Fined for Broadcasting Simpsons Episode
The Telegraph (UK) reports: Turkey’s Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK), the state broadcasting regulator, levied [an approximately $30,000] fine on the cartoon’s Turkish broadcaster for airing an episode on September 20 that was found to be insulting to religion …. In one segment of the episode, titled “Dial D for Diddly”, the religiously-devout […]
Egyptian Death Sentences for Those Who Involved in “Innocence of Muslims” — and Apparently for Several Uninvolved Coptic Activists
The AP reports that an Egyptian court has sentenced seven Egyptian Coptic Christians, plus American pastor Terry Jones, to death in absentia. (All are now outside the country, so the sentence won’t have any legal effect on them unless they return, or go to a country — likely a Muslim one — that is willing […]
Blasphemy Prosecution for Putting on Play
Reuters reports: Actors and the producer and director of an American play in Greece that depicted Jesus Christ and his apostles as gay [“Corpus Christi”] have been [criminally] charged with blasphemy [after Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus lodged a lawsuit against those involved in the play] …. A production of “Corpus Christi” in Athens was canceled […]
More Secular Blasphemy — Crime to Burn Poppies (or Post Pictures of Burning Poppies) in England
The Guardian (UK) reports: A teenager arrested on Remembrance Sunday on suspicion of posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook is being questioned by police. The 19-year-old was held after the image of a poppy being set ablaze by a lighter was reportedly posted online with the caption: “How about that you squadey […]
Secular Blasphemy
From Peta Deutschland v. Germany (Eur. Ct. Hum. Rts. Nov. 8, 2012): 6. The applicant association is the German branch of the animal rights organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). It pursues, inter alia, the aims of preventing animal suffering and of encouraging the public to abstain from using animal products. 7. […]
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Testimony on the First Amendment and Anti-Muslim/Anti-Islam Speech
By Eugene Volokh on November 9, 2012 3:15 pm in "Hate Speech", Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Freedom of Speech Restricted by Thugs, Hostile Environment Harassment Law
I was invited to testify on this subject at today’s U.S. Commission on Civil Rights briefing on Federal Civil Rights Engagement with the Arab and Muslim American Communities Post 9/11, so I thought I’d pass along my written remarks. You can read them in PDF form here, or in plain text below (though without the […]
Prosecution for Offending Religion Allowed to Go Forward
Thenews.pl reports: “The crime of offending religious sensibilities is committed not only by he who intends to carry it out, but also by he who is aware that his actions may lead to offence being taken,” [Poland’s Supreme Court concluded on Monday]. Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) points to the court decision, and my father […]
Man Who Drove SUV at Anti-Muslim Protesters (and Then Swerved to Avoid Them) Sentenced to Probation
The News-Herald reports: Mike Mohamad Agemy, who drove his SUV at a group of Christian demonstrators [the “Bible Believers”] in front of the Islamic Center of America on June 17 … enter[ed] a no-contest plea … to two lesser charges of aggravated assault, which each carry a sentence of up to six months in jail. […]
Sen. Kyl, “the Freedom to Offend,” and Flag Desecration
I appreciated Sen. Kyl’s recent op-ed on “the freedom to offend”: Last month at the United Nations General Assembly, several Muslim-majority countries pushed for the implementation of a so-called “blasphemy ban,” with countries like Iran arguing that religiously insensitive language should be classified as “hate speech” and banned under international regulations. The U.N rightly did […]
English University Student Government Excludes Atheist Group from Freshmen’s Fair for Blasphemy
By Eugene Volokh on October 8, 2012 3:10 pm in Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
Here’s the atheist group’s statement about the incident, which seems consistent with a Daily Mail (UK) account and with a statement from the student union (quoted in the article): Today, the Reading University Atheist, Humanist, and Secularist Society (RAHS) participated in the Freshers’ [i.e. Freshmen’s -EV] Fayre organised by Reading University Students’ Union (RUSU). We […]
Daniel Baer (U.S. State Department) on Freedom of Speech and Hostility to Religions
A generally very good discussion, I think, from a State Department online press conference on Sept. 27. One can debate whether or not some of the condemnation of certain kinds of speech might go a bit far (though it doesn’t go as far, I think, as the general condemnation of “denigration of religion” that I […]
Say an American Offered a $100,000 Bounty to Anyone Who Killed These Two Pakistanis for Their Offensive Speech
Here’s the story, from the AP: Ikramullah Shahid, a former Pakistani legislator, has offered a $200,000 (£123,800) bounty for anyone who kills the maker of an anti-Islam film that has angered Muslims around the world. He made the offer at a rally on Monday in the northwestern city of Peshawar, before a crowd of about […]