We’ll see…
The sale of the Charlie Hebdo magazine published after the Paris atrocity is threatening to become the first major test of the Irish Republic’s blasphemy law, Muslim representatives and secularists have warned.
Ireland’s Islamic Cultural Centre has said the presence of a depiction of the prophet Muhammad on the front page of the satirical publication, on sale now in Irish shops, is a clear breach of the country’s blasphemy legislation
READ ON: Sale of Charlie Hebdo in Ireland will test blasphemy law for first time (Henry McDonald,Guardian)
(H/T: Peter)
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Christ on a bike (giving Mohammed a backer)
Just as I reject the Ptolemaic system, I refuse to believe Ireland is the dumbest country on the planet. It’s a hard slog though.
If that’s the case can we ban the sale of the the quran, the torah and the bible as they all contradict each other? FFS – First 50 Shades of Buncrana, now this! Can we move to the 21st Century already?
Sadly some within Islam are determined to bring us back to the 12th century
7th Century.
The twelfth century was a renaissance, and certainly more enlightened than implied. Indeed some of the intellectual/artistic/social/cultural strides of the twelfth century can be traced back to Islamic practice.
Although this, of course, doesn’t negate the needless, non-sensical, and litigious attitude the post demonstrates.
Interestingly, from the middle and later Middle Ages there are partial representations of Mohammad in Islamic manuscripts (which seems, at the very least, slightly more tolerant than some attitudes today).
…there’s a lot to be said for another renaissance. The Chester Beatty Library has some of the finest Islamic manuscripts including depictions of the prophet.
Yes, they’re the ones I had in mind.
Unlike the space cadet from the deeply Christian TUV who yesterday went mental about erecting a memorial plaque for the Islandmcgee “witches”
Or many in the DUP who think the world is 6,000 years old and dinosaurs co-existed with humans.
Or the entire RC church which think celibacy is God’s wish for priests and nuns.
Or the bloody Scientologists and their very expensive audits to become a fourth level Thetan.
When handing out the crazy crackers, we’re not limited to Islam.
As are some within Christianity and Judaism.
Literally my favorite comment on the internet today..
That’s a fairly badly informed article. I will eat my hat if a prosecution is brought. Mr Hasain has form on these matters. Luckily for the rest of us, his declaration that it is illegal is hardly authoritative.
Both sets of self-publicis…, I mean, campaigners mentioned in the article have form on this and related issues (viz. crosses on Carrantouhil).
All that the publisher has to do in defence is show that the work complained about has “genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value”, which is undoubtedly the case where Charlie Hebdo is concerned. It may be a bad law which needs to be removed, but it’s a deliberately unenforceable bad law.
Mr. Hasain says a lot of things, and does zero. He’s notorious for this. He’s just a massive attention seeker.
“The sale of the Charlie Hebdo magazine published after the Paris atrocity is threatening to become the first major test ”
How can the sale of anything make threats?
By being “published” in the legal sense in Ireland, it comes within the ambit of the Defamation Act, which covers the offence of blasphemy. The article suggests, entirely incorrectly in my opinion, that a prosecution against the publishers for blasphemy may be brought by the DPP. As I said in a comment above, this is an extremely remote possibility.
How would ya know that the image resembles the prophet Mohamad?
I guess because it’s obviously meant to be him from the context? Should have added rollerskates though. Everyone loves rollerskates.
I dunno
Like Che would never have been one for the roller skates
I actually think the prophet needs more shades
Like the ones Tom Cruise wears in Top Gun
This is just not true. At all. A rudimentary level of research would’ve shown that.
Does anyone else feel the Guardian has a sort of racist attitude toward Ireland? It feels like they’re eager to portray us as a bunch of drunk, potato-munching, socially conservative, woman-hating Catholic extremists at every opportunity. Sure, we have embarrassingly retrograde abortion laws and even a totally neutered law against blasphemy doesn’t send out a great message but you’d think from their portrayal of us that we’re basically a Christian version of Saudi Arabia.
There’s definitely something about a pack of middle- to upper-class Brits sneering and taking a patronising tone toward the Irish gets my goat for sure.
Yeah
But it makes pulling them down a peg or two the best feeling you can have sober
And then I arrive at the Aer Lingus departure lounge , where my eyes are assaulted by men with budding breasts, chomping on crisps and guzzling beer ….then all Irish stereotypes seem justified.
What part of the article isn’t true?
Iona
The entire premise?
It’s far from the first test of Ireland’s blasphemy law – the Atheist Ireland types have been trying to get convicted under it since its inception – and Charlie Hebdo Muhammad cartoon is more than comfortably protected by the exceptions in the legislation (which basically swallow the entire prohibition on blasphemy anyhow). The DPP have come out and said that they can’t and won’t prosecute anybody under this law for fupp’s sake.
Don’t count on the Guardian to let reality get in the way of a good PC outrage though, persistent racist undertones of their agenda be damned.
“.. a good PC outrage though..”
Just when you were making sense….
Except that they’re not wrong, are they?
They are indeed wrong. See my previous comment or Cian’s below.
…isn’t Henry McDonald Irish…
Google tells me Northern Irish, but I’m speaking more about the Guardian’s general editorial bent towards Ireland rather than the individual views and biases of this particular writer.
The Guardian just looks down on everyone. Not sure it’s really an Irish thing. They’re just really smug cu*ts.
You could say the same about Stewart Curry.
Ugh. Everyone’s missing the super important third test in the Irish blasphemy legislation. That is
‘(3) It shall be a defence to proceedings for an offence under this section for the defendant to prove that a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value in the matter to which the offence relates.’
Charlie Hebdo’s survival issue has obvious literary, political, and artistic worth. Thus, it is not blasphemous by the Irish law.
I doubt many newsagents would have the balls to stock it anyway.