Quran burning prosecution in effect ‘reintroduces blasphemy law’
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/quran-burning-prosecution-in-effect-reintroduces-blasphemy-law-3p0dshcf6
Posted by insomnimax_99
Quran burning prosecution in effect ‘reintroduces blasphemy law’
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/quran-burning-prosecution-in-effect-reintroduces-blasphemy-law-3p0dshcf6
Posted by insomnimax_99
13 Comments
so lets wait until the judgement before spinning a bullshit rhetoric?
Interesting to see the argument that a law passed in 1986 is somehow reintroducing blasphemy laws…
Also fun to see some good, old-fashioned court reporting – looks like a journalist actually turned up to court and made notes on what the lawyers said. Although they don’t add much to the article beyond that – it is basically just selected quotes from the lawyers, with a bias in favour of the defence by including their quote in the headline.
One really picky thing:
> Blasphemy laws were abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and in Scotland in 2021.
The were repealed in Scotland in 2024, although understandable that someone might think it happened in 2021.
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To add some context, s5 Public Order Act is pretty broad, and generally used (and abused) against people “causing trouble” in public spaces. It is notable enough [to get its own Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_5_of_the_Public_Order_Act_1986). There is no requirement for that base offence that anything religious be involved.
It is hard to get exact statistics, but from what I can tell there are thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of these crimes recorded each year by the police.
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The day I can’t burn a flag or religious book or even any book, is the day democracy dies.
Perhaps I’m just old and grumpy but IMO our laws are utter nonsense. You shouldn’t be entitled to not be offended and burning a book which is your own property if done relatively safely with no damage should not be illegal.
Utter bollocks. The public order act has been in place for decades. It was amended to make it an aggravated offence if the perpetrator did so racial, religious or sexual preference grounds. This is about shit-stirring
Does that mean we live in a military dictatorship because people were arrested and fined for burning Poppies?
Thank god I don’t live in a religious society… oh wait….
Do you think i could get people arrested for burning guy fawkes. If i believe he was a revolutionary and before his time.
The interesting thing about the case is that two men attacked the guy who burned the book. Only one of them has been charged? What happened to the other guy? Didn’t he commit a bigger crime over the guy burning the book?
The last time I commented on this I was banned from the sub for pointing out factual information contained in the burned book.
Hitchens is spinning in his grave.
What happens if you’ve got the Kindle version and delete it?
Yeah I’m really not happy with how Islam is bringing religious sensibilities back into our laws. We had only just broken away from the overbearing nature of Victorian puritan Christianity (in the mid 20th century).
The whole concept of “inciting racial or religious hatred” is a mistake.
You’re offended by something I do or say? Well, that’s a shame. Move on with your life and deal with it. Burning a book in public should not be illegal. Offending people based on religious attitudes *definitely* shouldn’t be illegal, because for a secular society to function, religious axioms need to be challenged.