{"id":10378,"date":"2017-02-25T23:40:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T23:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=10378"},"modified":"2017-03-29T21:10:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T21:10:31","slug":"enlightenment-fail-a-dane-is-charged-with-blasphemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/enlightenment-fail-a-dane-is-charged-with-blasphemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Enlightenment Fail : A Dane is Charged with Blasphemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Cross-posted<\/a> on the Corner.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> <\/a>(my emphasis added):<\/p>\n

A 42-year-old man who burned a Quran and posted a video of it on Facebook has been charged with blasphemy in Denmark, a striking decision by prosecutors in a country that is largely secular but has grappled with the role of Islam in public life\u2026<\/p>\n

The decision to charge the Quran burner was made by a regional prosecutor in Viborg, on the Jutland peninsula, and had to be approved by the country\u2019s attorney general. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The blasphemy law has been invoked only a handful of times since its creation in 1866, most recently in 1971, when two people broadcast a song mocking Christianity and stirred a debate over female sexuality. They were acquitted. No one has been convicted of the crime since 1946, when a man dressed himself up as a priest and mock-baptized a doll at a masquerade ball.<\/p>\n

In the current case, the suspect, who was not identified by the authorities but called himself John Salvesen on Facebook, uploaded video footage of a Quran being burned in his backyard. In the 4-minute, 15-second clip, the clicking sounds of a lighter are heard before flames engulf the large leather-bound book.<\/p>\n

The video was posted on Dec. 27, 2015, to a Facebook group called \u201cYes to Freedom \u2014 No to Islam.\u201d Above the video, shared 415 times, were the words: \u201cConsider your neighbor, it stinks when it burns.\u201d One commenter wrote: \u201cIf I had the Quran I\u2019d also burn it, that\u2019s the only thing it\u2019s good for. Gives a bit of heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s Facebook page was full of messages critical of Islam, refugees and women. In one post, he even wrote, \u201cI hate children.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not the most likable of individuals, it seems, but that, in this context, is neither here nor there. \u00a0A decade or so ago, shortly after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten<\/em> published the Mohammed cartoons, I wrote<\/a> an article examining the reaction elsewhere in Europe to Denmark\u2019s defense of free speech:<\/p>\n

Denmark, and its tradition of free speech, has been left to twist in the wind, trashed, abused, and betrayed. An article published in Jyllands-Posten (yes, them again) on Friday revealed clear frustration over the way that the country is being treated. It\u2019s in Danish only, but one phrase (\u201cYtringsfrihed er ytringsfrihed er ytringsfrihed. Der er intet men.\u201d) stands out, and it deserves to be translated and repeated again, and again, and again: \u201cFree speech is free speech is free speech. There is no but.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was then.<\/p>\n

After <\/a>the Charlie-Hebdo<\/em> massacre all but one of Denmark\u2019s major newspapers published some of the French magazine\u2019s edgier cartoons. The one that did not was Jyllands-Posten<\/em>, citing security concerns, a decision, the newspaper explained, showed that \u201cviolence works\u201d.<\/p>\n

Back to The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0(again, my emphasis added):<\/p>\n

Jacob Mchangama, director of Justitia, a Danish civil liberties group, called the decision to file charges the latest sign of a declining respect for free speech in Europe<\/strong>. \u201cIt\u2019s a sad development but one that mirrors developments elsewhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mchangama said he thought the prosecutor was motivated by a desire to fend off the threat of terrorist attacks. \u201cDanish authorities are afraid that the Quran burning could spark a new crisis, and if they say that they\u2019ve actually charged this person, this is a way to appease or at least avoid such a crisis,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Violence works.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> writes\u00a0brightly that \u2018only\u2019 five EU countries have blasphemy laws on the books (not nothing, I reckon, in a union of 28), but fails to note how European authorities in a number of other member-states have sometimes used \u2018hate crimes\u2019 legislation as a de facto blasphemy law. Lest we forget: Free speech is not a #EuropeanValue .<\/p>\n

Oh yes, according to the Koran-burner\u2019s defence lawyer, in 1997 a Danish artist burned a copy of the Bible on a news show by a state broadcaster. There was no prosecution.<\/p>\n

And there wouldn\u2019t be now I reckon, which is how it should be. But the fact that there wouldn\u2019t is simultaneously a double standard, patronizing (Muslim sensitivities apparently need special protection) and, yet again, a recognition that violence works.<\/p>\n

So, usually, does intimidation by the state. According to the Times, \u201ca trial has been scheduled for June. If convicted, the defendant faces up to four months in prison or a fine.\u201d\u00a0 But a conviction and any penalty are not really the point. The process itself, with its expense, anxiety and more, is both punishment and\u00a0a\u00a0message that the authorities want to send out to any Dane thinking of expressing the wrong sort of thoughts about Islam in the wrong way.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Trine Bramsen, a member of Parliament and a spokeswoman of the Social Democrats (the leading party of Denmark\u2019s center-left) has, the Times reports, defended the blasphemy law:<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggle to see how that we\u2019ll achieve a stronger society, or how we\u2019ll enrich the public debate, if the burning of holy books was permitted\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what? Burning the Koran may add nothing (or less than nothing) to the debate, but the idea that controversial expressions of opinion can only be permitted if they are in the interests of a \u201cstronger society\u201d (whatever that is) or\u00a0\u201cenrich the public debate\u201d (whoever decides that) is entirely at odds with the idea of truly free speech.<\/p>\n

And so, needless to say, are blasphemy laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted on the Corner. The New York Times (my emphasis added): A 42-year-old man who burned a Quran and posted a video of it on Facebook has been charged with blasphemy in Denmark, a striking decision by prosecutors in a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[746],"tags":[51,480],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10378"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10383,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10378\/revisions\/10383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}