It is likely that this will conclude the committee stage of this amendment before the Bill goes to the Dail.

Please email and/or ring these TDs before Wednesday: http://tr.im/q9uL

I am writing to you as a member of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights to express to you my opposition to the inclusion of a proposed Blasphemous Libel amendment to the Defamation Bill currently going through the Oireachtais. I wish to ask you to vote against this bad piece of legislation.

Please allow me to state my reasons for this request.

I believe that if the Dail passes this amendment it will constitute a grave attack on the right to freedom of speech, so vital in a free and healthy democracy. This amendment represents nothing but a fundamentalists charter to silence those of us who would exercise our right to publicly question belief in superstition and the irrational. This amendment holds the real possibility that I will be made a criminal because I seek to criticise such belief. The very idea that someone or some group can hold “personal beliefs” which I am not allowed to criticise or indeed expose, is the very death knell of the right of freedom of speech and freedom of thought, which many have given their lives to defend. It has the potential to put us back again to the Dark Ages and represents a travesty of such hard won freedoms.

Micheal Martin as Minister of Foreign Affairs recently stated Government policy in the Dail after Ireland had voted on a resolution at the U.N. as follows:

“We believe that the concept of defamation of religion is not consistent with the promotion and protection of human rights. It can be used to justify arbitrary limitations on, or the denial of, freedom of expression. Indeed, Ireland considers that freedom of expression is a key and inherent element in the manifestation of freedom of thought and conscience and as such is complementary to freedom of religion or belief.”

This proposed Blasphemous Libel amendment introduced by Dermot Ahern makes a mockery of this position and completely turns it on its head. The situation for freedom of speech is even further weakened because the amendment now requires the defendant to effectively prove their innocence in the face of charges that someone is feels grossly offended. The question of criminality is effectively hinging of how offended someone’s “personal beliefs” are. It is fair to say that the example of Evolutionary Theory of Human Development is held to be grossly offensively by many religious sects. This amendment will be a joy to those who, internationally, are seeking to replace the rational and the scientific with the irrational.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern publicly claims that the amendment is constitutionally necessary. I believe that this “necessity” to retain the “crime” of blasphemy in our Constitution can now be remedied by having it removed by vote during the Lisbon Treaty referendum. This would be the right and proper thing to do. The right to Freedom of Speech must never be subservient to the whims of someone’s “personal belief”. It is just too important for that.

Please reject this dangerous amendment.

Sincerely Yours,

Please everyone ignore Mujaahid’s jibes and let’s get back to work on defeating this dangerous amendment.

Yes actually, I do want the freedom to insult people, and I want my Irish counterparts to have that same freedom, be they religious or not. Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of/from religion; all of the above are valued by me. None of those freedoms imply that you or I have the right not to be offended by those who don’t believe in the same things that we do.

Is your position so weak as to withstand no criticism and require the protection of law from those who would blaspheme your convictions? Mine are not so weak as that, and I abhor any attempts to outlaw the criticism of any point of view.