EU-wide religious hatred ban

Justice ministers from across the European Union will meet on Thursday to agree an EU-wide ban on incitement to religious hatred.  According to Reuters, pressure from the British government has led to the proposal being watered down:

The new legislation requires EU states to punish incitement to hatred against religion only if it is a pretext to incite hatred against a group or person because of national or ethnic origin, race or colour, a draft seen by Reuters shows.

However, the report continues:

Diplomats stressed that countries could continue to punish hatred against religion more broadly even once the EU text is adopted, as tougher national rules would still be allowed.

In other words, all EU countries will be required to enact legislation against religious hatred but if a government so wishes, the national laws can be tougher than the EU legislation but not more lenient.

The UK's Religious Hatred Act has still not been implemented despite being on the statute book for over a year. The government originally said that it would come into force this February.  Whatever the reason for the delay, the justice ministers' agreement on Thursday could well be the trigger for bringing it into force.

Every EU country will now be obliged to enact similar laws against religious hatred. Islamists and other religious nutters across Europe will use every trick in the book to 'prove' that a criticism of their religion is a veiled incitement to racial hatred. As usual, the devil will be in the judges' interpretations. For example, if most of the Muslims in a country are from one ethnic group, could a criticism of Islam be construed as an attempt to incite hatred against that group?

These laws will give the religious bigots yet another weapon with which to close down any criticism of their faiths.  They'll probably get taxpayer funding to do it too. 

Comments

[Lord Nazh]

And another nail in the coffin of Europe.

[poimandres]

UK goes the same way as the Eurinals, - barking mad.

[pommygranate]

Will these laws cover Piratism too?

[G. Tingey]

I think the way around it is as follows:
"All religions are based on a combination of moral and physical blackmail, and are despicable, especially in their treatment of women.
This definitely applies to islam."

By arguing from the general to the particular, it would be VERY difficult to invoke a racial-haterd clause.
Also, all one has to do is read out the requisite hatred and killing clauses/verses from the appropriate "holy book".

Isn't this what a BNP member did, which forced an acquittal?

[Rastaman]

What prominent individuals and groups spoke out against this? How many public demonstrations were there to protect freedom of speech?

I'm asking because I can't find one mention on Google News of any form of outcry against this law. The only thing that comes up at all out of a mere 60 links is that Britain, to a small degree of credit, succeeded in getting the law watered down to something a little less insidious.

You know whose voice is loudest in favor of this? Putins. The New Stalin. That's right.

Stop complaining about the passage of these laws. You couldn't possibly be doing anything more ineffectual. Instead, get off your collective ass and raise so much hell at the mere suggestion of creating such laws that they will never even come to a vote.

As long as you just sit and watch as you are jammed into smaller and smaller cages, you have nothing to complain about.

Freedom isn't free. It never was.

Rastaman
www.islamanazi.com

[jameshigham]

Is anyone who has a religious view a bigot?

[Lord Nazh]

Biggotry is in the eye of the offended.

[Hellpig]

So what are they banning Islam?

The religion of hate and death

No this was started by muslims to appear moderate,just a step towards Shari'a Law wake up people

[Steve]

Rasta - the UK already passed a religious hatred law, so the EU ruling won't affect us.

There was a huge outcry two years ago against the UK bill (I was on one of the demos outside Parliament) which got it watered down.

If I have understood this correctly, what Thursday's agreement will do is force other EU countries to enact similar legislation.

[Rastaman]

Steve, good for you for standing up against it. The fact that Britain already has a religious hatred law doesn't remove the danger, though. This isn't another British law, this is a law affecting the entire EU and every country in it, which means it will end up superceding Britains law.

You ARE in the EU, and not just a separate nation anymore. Your nationality is being steadily diminished as the EU passes more and more laws. Your situation is much like a state within the United States. Your autonomy is limited and subject to being overruled. Not speaking out against laws that shut down whole areas and chunks of your Free Speech is dooming you to an existence under the thumb of Big Brother.

The EU is a disaster that enriches the very rich while oppressing all the rest of you. Eventually all that I say here will land you in prison if you allow these comments to be on your blog.

I can say anything I want against any religion, here at home. I can preach mindless, raving hatred if I like. I can deny the Holocaust ever happened even though I know it did, and nothing will happen to me. I have Freedom of Speech.

It is limited. I can't advocate violence generally, without varying degrees of penalty, but I can say what I hate and why I hate it. If I hate Islam, which I do, fervently, I can say so and I can say why.

You've lost that right. Even though you may never have wanted to excercise it, that's not the point. It's a freedom you now no longer have, it's been taken away by those who want complete and total control over you and are going to get it, bit by bit and piece by piece.

Rastaman
www.islamanazi.com

[kingping]

The UK act is pretty good, because it outlaws only threatening speech and contains a clause defending freedom of expression.

The problem is to get something in EU law guaranteeing that religious hatred legislation must never go beyond this.

And then we should let Turkey into the EU to make sure freedom of speech does not die out there.

[Hellpig]

And yet the Imams preach hate in mosques without penalty,who was this law for again?

[chachi]

learn why i don't believe in what western history teaches us about the past, you'll learn a lot about the islamic past & what muslims were achieving when europeans were sitting in huts scratching their heads.
Its a channel 4 documentary 1hr 42m long, if you do watch it, watch it to the end, it'll change your views on todays situation.

pig & rasta, you 2 really need to see this, it'll remove all the brainwashing bullshit that your heads have been filled with.

http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24

[Wolfie]

Well these laws could slam the door shut on any notion that Turkey may join the EU then. ;-)

[Bruce Rockwell]

Found the following on the web:

WHO'S BEHIND 'HATE' LAWS ?

To find out, Yahoo "The Earliest
'Hate' Criminals." (It is still
legal in America to read it.)
(Marge)
----Bruce