Maryam did a blogathon today. All you need for an arrest is hurt religious sentiment is a good one (as are all the others). The first example she offers is a Bangladeshi writer.
A Bangladeshi court has issued an arrest warrant for the writer of a 2003 novel that allegedly contains insulting remarks against the Prophet Mohammed, a lawyer said Tuesday.
The court in Dhaka issued the order in response to a petition from a Muslim activist accusing author Salam Azad of hurting religious sentiment in his banned book “Bhanga Math” (“Broken Temple”).
“We told the court that the book contained slanderous remarks against the Prophet Mohammed and Islam. The judge accepted the petition and issued a warrant of arrest,” the petitioner’s lawyer Ekhlas Uddin told AFP.
I apologize for pointing out the obvious yet again, but sane legal systems do not have laws against “slander” of people who have been dead for centuries. I can say anything I want to about Socrates; so can you; so can anyone. Sane legal systems also do not have laws against “slander” of religions, even the local religion. Only insane legal systems have those.
The very idea is simply infantile. What next? Somebody slandered a building? A piece of fruit? Pluto? (planet or cartoon dog, I don’t care) The weather?
You saw it predicted here first.
Fruits and vegetables are already protected by anti-slander laws.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1525/is_n6_v80/ai_17579556/?tag=content;col1
About three years ago, in the old ScienceBlogs Pharyngula, there was a discussion about the reclassification of Pluto to a minor planet. One person complained bitterly about this, apparently feeling it would bring down Western Civilization as we know it.
I’d link to the thread but the SB Pharyngula comments remain borked.
Oh yes. Mooney and Kirshenbaum opened Unscientific America with the “demotion” of Pluto, too. It was quite funny.
You Pluto Atheists be warned! We followers of the Dark Iceball will not slighted!
Socrates was a douchebag.
*runs*
See Digital Cuttlefish’s article about slandering a statute (is it slander to point out a drainage issue?) in the article about an arrest for insulting the Catholic’s sense of entitlement.
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