Pages

Sunday, 28 October 2018

None of us should enjoy the right to have our beliefs shielded from abuse | Kenan Malik

We live in sorry times if hurt feelings have now become a matter for the lawmakers

Should it be illegal to call the prophet Muhammad a “paedophile”? That was the question in front of the European court of human rights (ECHR) last week.

In 2009, an Austrian woman, known as ES, held “seminars” on Islam in which she likened Muhammad’s marriage to six-year-old Aisha to paedophilia. She was convicted of “disparaging religion”. In keeping with a history of supporting blasphemy laws, the ECHR upheld the conviction. ES’s comments, it ruled, “aimed at demonstrating that Muhammad was not a worthy subject of worship”. Presenting objects of religious worship in a provocative way capable of hurting the feelings of believers, it added, “could be conceived as a malicious violation of the spirit of tolerance”.

We should no more support secular versions of blasphemy laws than the old religious variety

Continue reading...

from Islam | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2EQ9ifQ

No comments:

Post a Comment