Dutch to abolish their blasphemy law – but something worse threatens

OP - November 10, 2008, 08:29 AM

Dutch to abolish their blasphemy law – but something worse threatens

The Netherlands is about to abolish its blasphemy law. The Dutch Government has announced that in its place it intends to include religion in its anti-discrimination laws, putting it on a par with other groups.

But these replacement proposals could be even worse than the blasphemy law itself. The Mediawatchwatch blog reports:

The intention is to introduce the concept of “indirect insult” and expand an existing law which protects people on the basis of race, age, disability, and sexual orientation to include protection on the basis of religion or “conviction”. This means that remarks directed at Islam, Christianity, Buddhism or — depending on your interpretation of “conviction” — even homeopathy and astrology, could be interpreted as indirect insults to people, and prosecuted as such.

According to a commenter on the original story, this law carries a maximum sentence of 12 months, whereas the original defunct blasphemy law carried a maximum 3 month sentence.

Writes Rose: “This spring the Dutch minister of justice Hirsch Ballin wrote a note to parliament asking them to consider stiffening blasphemy laws. In the aftermath of the scandal surrounding the arrest of Gregorius Nekschot parliament refused to go along, and this proposal is the compromise that the government came up with.”

This whole scenario looks very similar to what we went through here in the UK with the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill – when we came very close to getting a universal blasphemy law imposed on us. We won that battle by a narrow margin, thanks to an alliance of convenience between artists, secularists and Christians.

Jan de Wit, who is a member of the opposition Socialist Party in the Netherlands, said: “The blasphemy law was already a dead letter, but it is was wrong in principle that believers should have more protection than non-believers. Thank goodness this has now come to an end. And anyway, who decides if God feels offended or not?”

Let us hope that Mr de Wit and other defenders of free speech will manage to nip this dreadful new proposal in the bud.

I don't like the sound of this at all. It's a law that'd be just begging to be abused.

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West. bunny

Re: Dutch to abolish their blasphemy law – but something worse threatens

Reply #2 - November 10, 2008, 02:25 PM

Why would a minister of justice want to stiffen blasphemy laws in a place like Holland? Who's been rattling his bars, I wonder.

Religion is ignorance giftwrapped in lyricism.

Re: Dutch to abolish their blasphemy law – but something worse threatens

Reply #4 - November 10, 2008, 08:51 PM

Bit of a worry, innit? And I can easily guess who has been rattling his bars. Christians are used to criticism and don't even bother raising an eyebrow these days.

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West. bunny

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Topic: Dutch to abolish their blasphemy law – but something worse threatens

osmanthus

OP - November 10, 2008, 08:29 AM

BerberElla

Reply #1 - November 10, 2008, 11:14 AM

sojournerlumus

Reply #2 - November 10, 2008, 02:25 PM

awais

Reply #3 - November 10, 2008, 02:32 PM

osmanthus

Reply #4 - November 10, 2008, 08:51 PM

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