Norway Outlaws Blasphemy
The Norwegian Parliament has enacted a tough new amendment to the country's penal code, to make blasphemy a criminal offense punishable by a fine or jail time (for details, see http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2006-02/15/article04.shtml).
Hmm... let's see. Does that mean you can't show The DaVinci Code in Oslo's movie theaters? How about The Last Temptation of Christ on late-night cable? Can John Dominic Crossan be prosecuted for saying the Gospels are fiction and denying Christ's resurrection?
Won't Norway be in dutch with Europe for passing a law that might make celebrating a gay marriage in a church be grounds for jail time? And what are they going to do with some of the more over-the-top rock groups?
Is it just maybe possible that the only blasphemy that'll be illegal in Norway will be blasphemy against Islam? (Never mind that technically speaking, it's not possible for a Christian to blaspheme against Muhammad.)
On Jan. 10 a Norwegian magazine published the controversial Muhammad cartoons, originally published in Denmark in September of '05. Since then, Muslim rioters in Syria have burned the Norwegian embassy, Muslim demonstrators in Norway have threatened Norwegian media types with grievous bodily harm, and quite frankly, Parliament got good and scared.
We don't know for a fact that this latest move is simply the latest step in Europe's endless dance of appeasement. We can't wait to see how they enforce the new law. Dollars to doughnuts it boils down to, "Respect for Islam, and everybody else can go stick rast in his hat and punch it." St. Olaf must be spinning in his grave.
This just in, from The Guardian (UK): "Russia clamps down on religious insults" (http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1711422,00.html). An arm of the Russian government, the Federal Service for the Oversight of Legislation in Mass Communications and the Protection of Cultural Heritage (and you thought our bureaucracy was top-heavy!) has warned of sanctions against any Russian media accused of "insulting religious feelings."
Do you get the impression that Europe just might not be able to stand up to Islam?
Hmm... let's see. Does that mean you can't show The DaVinci Code in Oslo's movie theaters? How about The Last Temptation of Christ on late-night cable? Can John Dominic Crossan be prosecuted for saying the Gospels are fiction and denying Christ's resurrection?
Won't Norway be in dutch with Europe for passing a law that might make celebrating a gay marriage in a church be grounds for jail time? And what are they going to do with some of the more over-the-top rock groups?
Is it just maybe possible that the only blasphemy that'll be illegal in Norway will be blasphemy against Islam? (Never mind that technically speaking, it's not possible for a Christian to blaspheme against Muhammad.)
On Jan. 10 a Norwegian magazine published the controversial Muhammad cartoons, originally published in Denmark in September of '05. Since then, Muslim rioters in Syria have burned the Norwegian embassy, Muslim demonstrators in Norway have threatened Norwegian media types with grievous bodily harm, and quite frankly, Parliament got good and scared.
We don't know for a fact that this latest move is simply the latest step in Europe's endless dance of appeasement. We can't wait to see how they enforce the new law. Dollars to doughnuts it boils down to, "Respect for Islam, and everybody else can go stick rast in his hat and punch it." St. Olaf must be spinning in his grave.
This just in, from The Guardian (UK): "Russia clamps down on religious insults" (http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1711422,00.html). An arm of the Russian government, the Federal Service for the Oversight of Legislation in Mass Communications and the Protection of Cultural Heritage (and you thought our bureaucracy was top-heavy!) has warned of sanctions against any Russian media accused of "insulting religious feelings."
Do you get the impression that Europe just might not be able to stand up to Islam?
