Father Ted creators Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan are supporting a challenge by Atheist Ireland to the new blasphemy law. If the bill becomes law, which may happen this week or next, Atheist Ireland will challenge it by publishing a blasphemous statement.
- Father Ted creators back challenge to the blasphemy bill
(news item by Henry McDonald in The Observer, July 5)
The Observer article also mentions our AGM next Saturday from 2-5 pm in Wynns Hotel in Dublin. Members of the public are welcome. Please come along and bring any friends who you think might be interested in campaigning against this law and for an ethical secular Ireland.
This is definitely going to be a heated debate! I shall see you all there on Saturday.
Comment by Eric Shantz — July 5, 2009 @ 2:55 pm
I had a letter published last Friday in the Times about this insane and crazy law. The published letter was edited somewhat.
Mr Ahern,
I wish to vent my anger and shame at you for wishing to uphold the medieval concept of blasphemy in our constitution. I find it utterly disappointing that in the Ireland of 2009 that no mainstream politician has made a stance against this.
You made the comment that the law is already in the constitution and that it would be too costly to hold a referendum. Why do you not allow the people of Ireland to express their opinion on this matter alongside the Lisbon referendum? Even if the law could not be removed why do you not place a token fine of 1 euro for the “crime”?
Why is insulting someones faith any more worthy of being called a criminal offence, than insulting someones mother or their favourite football team or their political stance? Would you have Richard Dawkins arrested for his accurate depiction of the Judea christian god if a judge was of the opinion that he knew that saying this would offend allot of people?
The Bible, Quaran, and Torah are not a guide to living a moral life. They were books written by uneducated man and have no problem with slavery. They are misogynistic, homophobic and intolerant of anything beyond their limited sphere of irrational belief. The old testament contains references to the slaying of children and the rape of young virgins to satisfy god. No right parent would expose their children to violent television programmes yet the bible has the most grotesque depiction of violence. The call to holy war is made continually throughout both the old and new testament. Even the animals of the earth are called upon to enact gods psychopathic vengeance all throughout the bible.
No decent person wants to deliberately hurt peoples feelings for no reason, but if by doing so results in a healthy debate on how we should live our lives at the start of the 21st century then I think it is a worthy cause.
Remember Mr Ahern this debate has an international context as the Islamic world and the Vatican are pushing for the UN to impose a similar law. Do the Irish people really want to help act as a catalyst for this irrational nonsense?
Hope to be at the AGM
Cyril Butler
Blanchardstown
Dublin
Comment by Cyril — July 5, 2009 @ 10:34 pm
Quote from Cyrils letter
The old testament contains references to the slaying of children and the rape of young virgins to satisfy god
You said it right old testament
at least with the bible the old testament was replaced with a new testament
Unlike with the koran ,it was never rewritten
and with Islam there is no moderate islam period
even PM Erdogan has said this
Speaking at Kanal D TV’s Arena program, PM Erdogan commented on the term “moderate Islam”, often used in the West to describe AKP and said, ‘These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.”
http://www.thememriblog.org/turkey/blog_personal/en/2595.htm
take this Quaran verse, Mpac themselves put up in this youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYAHEVRlbu4&feature=channel_page
Now take that parituclar verse
and what may be acted out or said over it
A Muslim cleric’s claim that women who do not wear the veil are like ‘uncovered meat’ who attract sexual predators
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-412697/Outrage-Muslim-cleric-likens-women-uncovered-meat.html
Iran: Top cleric says women without veils must die
http://scarlettcrusader.wordpress.com/2007/12/20/iran-top-cleric-says-women-without-veils-must-die/
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=893_1198427063
THE nation’s most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don’t wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned “meat” that attracts voracious animals
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20646437-601,00.html
Saudi cleric favours one-eye veil
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7651231.stm
Saudi Cleric Says Women Must Wear One-Eye Veil to Prevent ‘Seduction’
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432803,00.html
Thousands of Iranian women have been cautioned over their poor Islamic dress this week and several hundred arrested in the capital Tehran in the most fierce crackdown on what’s known as “bad hijab” for more than a decade.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6596933.stm
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iranian police will launch a crackdown next month on small companies which fail to enforce strict religious dress codes, Mehr News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The move indicates an expansion of a clampdown on “immoral” conduct launched last year against women flouting rules to cover their heads and disguise the shape of their bodies in public, in line with Iran’s Islamic system.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSBLA04786020080430
A hitherto unknown group calling itself the Just Swords of Islam issued a warning to Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip over the weekend that they must wear the hijab or face being targeted by the group’s members
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881802888&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Muslim dentist ‘refused to treat woman unless she wore headscarf’
A Muslim dentist refused to treat a woman unless she wore a headscarf despite previously being reprimanded for the same reason, the General Dental Council was told
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5292031/Muslim-dentist-refused-to-treat-woman-unless-she-wore-headscarf.html
Muslim dentist ‘refused to treat female patients unless they wore Islamic dress’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178411/Muslim-dentist-refused-treat-female-patients-unless-wore-Islamic-dress.html
Dentist in Islamic headscarf row
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/7011120.stm
also remember the the cronulla riots in Austraila 2005 and what caused those exact riots
There was allegations around the local area that groups of the ‘middle eastern youths’ on the beach had asked white women wearing bikinis to “cover up
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_caused_the_cronulla_riots
Sixty Minutes Special : After The Riots
watch and listen to what some of the girls say about the riots in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw2KVIyZFgs
Il also point Oslo rape statistics from this article
Two out of three charged with rape in Norway’s capital are immigrants with a non-western background according to a police study. The number of rape cases is also rising steadily
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article190268.ece
Im not sure whether you have heard or seen fitna but incase you havent check it here
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=216_1207467783
wafa sultan says it best in this video on the clash in the post 9,11 world between the west and muslim world
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1296126090432829344
Comment by Talia — July 6, 2009 @ 12:58 am
That would be an ecumenical matter!
Comment by Father Jack Hackett — July 11, 2009 @ 2:09 pm