Blasphemy

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*[[Fun:Beginner's guide to blasphemy|The Beginner's Guide to Blasphemy]]
  
 
==Footnotes==
 
==Footnotes==

Revision as of 14:44, 30 September 2009

If you would like to take up blasphemy as am inexpensive but very rewarding hobby, see: Fun:Beginner's guide to blasphemy

Blasphemy is an impious utterance or action concerning God, gods, or sacred things.[1] Frequently the definition is extended to include anything which would be regarded as "bad language". Blasphemy is considered by some, namely it's practitioners, to be barely anything more than a thought-crime committed against a non-existent entity. In places with strong religious based law however, blasphemy laws can be, and are, used against those who don't even subscribe to the beliefs being blasphemed against.

Blasphemy in Modern Law

In the times of the Old Testament, blasphemy was punishable by death and used to be a criminal offense in many western states. Although many of these laws may still exist on the statute books as technicalities, they are not now enforced, or at least not with any real punishment, in most western countries.[2]. In the UK the obsolete blasphemy law was repealed in 2008.[3] This may be attributed to the actions of Stephen Green, who attempted to use the blasphemy laws against Jerry Springer: The Opera, which brought the fact that the UK had such an arcane law still on its books.

However, blasphemy prosecution do still occur throughout the world:

  • The Austrian artist Gerhard Haderer created and published a satirical book about a cannabis-smoking, surfing Jesus. The book was published in Austria. He was subsequently tried in absentia for blasphemy in Greece and received a six month sentence.[4]. (The sentence was revoked on appeal.)
  • Even in the "new" Afghanistan blasphemy remains a capital offense. In January 2008 Sayed Pervez Kambaksh was sentenced to death for blasphemy after a five minute trial. This followed reports he had downloaded from the internet un-Islamic material on women's rights.[8]
  • Indonesia is a little more liberal, there you only get a four year jail sentence. [9]

See also

Footnotes

  1. The very definition of "sacred" implies that jokes against it are entirely off-limits, hence the massive taboo and the special term known as "blasphemy".
  2. Review of European blasphemy laws
  3. UK repeal Blasphemy law
  4. Greece sentence artist to six months for blasphemy
  5. Iran's death penalty for apostasy
  6. Pakistan death sentence for blasphemy against the prophet
  7. Saudi Arabian death sentence for blasphemy
  8. Afghanistan blasphemy death sentence
  9. Indonesia - four years in jail for blasphemy
  10. Turkey silences Dawkins
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