Dutch MP Geert Wilders has posted his controversial film Fitna on the Internet. The film, a polemic against the ‘Islamicisation’ of Europe made up of clips of bombings and speeches from imams and politicians, has been the subject of huge controversy in the Netherlands, where the government has been at pains to distance itself from Wilders’s stance.
(Warning: the film contains graphic violent footage).
The repeal of the blasphemy laws could be a Pyrrhic victory if other laws are used to provide greater protection for religion, writes Padraig Reidy
Secularist groups greeted the first step in the repeal of the blasphemy laws with delight last week. Hanne Stinsen of the British Humanist Association suggested that the House of Lords’ vote indicated ‘a clear commitment from across the political and belief spectrums to abolish the outdated and discriminatory blasphemy laws’.
Quite so.
Over at the National Secular Society, Keith Porteous Wood said: ‘It is disgraceful that such a relic of religious savagery has survived into the 21st century.’
Indeed, Keith. Indeed.
Meanwhile, in free-speech land, Jonathan Heawood of English PEN was preparing the wake for a law he declared already ‘long dead’ (the last prosecution having been in 1977 — the infamous Gay News trial).
Hurray!
The Advertising Standards Agency has ordered a hair product commercial to be withdrawn as it risks causing ‘serious offence’ to Christians.
The German family ministry is pushing for the ban of children’s book How Do I get To God, Asked The Small Piglet.
The ministry has written to the federal department responsible for reviewing children’s literature, saying “the book ridicules three worldwide religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism (…), this later being shown as particularly fearful and cruel”.