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Ireland Set to Overturn Constitutional Ban on Blasphemy
Wall Street Journal ^ | October 27, 2018 | Paul Hannon

Posted on 10/27/2018 7:48:24 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o

Ireland has likely voted to remove a reference to blasphemy as a punishable offense from the country’s constitution, paving the way for repeal of a law that criminalizes public utterances judged offensive to religious sensibilities.

The decision in a referendum on Friday is the latest signal reflecting the country’s weakening adherence to the Catholic Church, which had itself described the constitutional reference as “obsolete.”

According to an exit poll conducted on behalf of state-owned broadcaster RTE, 71.1% of voters backed the removal of the blasphemy reference, a larger proportion than backed a May proposal to remove a ban on abortion from the constitution, and a 2015 amendment that allowed for same-sex marriage. Official results will come later Saturday.

[Huge snip]

Many European countries retain provisions that allow for prosecution...

Some European countries are slowly removing the offense from their penal codes. While the USCIRF report was being compiled, Denmark and Malta repealed their laws, following similar moves by Norway in 2015, the Netherlands in 2012 and England and Wales in 2008.

More highly religious countries such as Poland and Greece aren’t expected to remove the offense, while some countries—such as Germany—view their laws as a way of offering protection to Islam and other minority religions at a time of increased hostility to immigrants. On Friday, the European Court of Human Rights upheld a 2011 verdict by an Austrian court that sentenced an unnamed woman to pay a fine for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

“Though…identifiable trends point towards the direction of removing restrictions, the absolute disappearance of blasphemy bans on the continent will nevertheless apparently be a long process, if it ever takes place at all,” said Andras Koltay, an associate professor of law at Pazmany Peter Catholic University in Budapest. http://outline.com/6q38

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blasphemylaw; catholic; dhimmitude; eurabia; eussr; fartyshadesofgreen; freespeech; hijrah; ireland; islam; rop
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FTA:

" Although Ireland’s criminalization of blasphemy dates back to the drafting of the constitution in 1937, nobody has ever been convicted and few have been investigated. Until 2009, the legal code didn’t contain a definition of the offense that would have allowed for a successful prosecution."

This makes me think this is a good rime to get rid of a law that has never been operative --- because the people most likely to press for enforcement at this point are the Muslims.

Want to get past the paywall? IDK, but try:

https://outline.com/6q38GY

1 posted on 10/27/2018 7:48:24 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Time for another potato famine...


2 posted on 10/27/2018 7:49:19 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

So you aren’t a fan of free speech?


3 posted on 10/27/2018 7:51:57 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: Mrs. Don-o

They may as well. The whole country’s become a blasphemy at this point.


4 posted on 10/27/2018 7:53:23 PM PDT by Antoninus ("In Washington, swamp drain you.")
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To: Mrs. Don-o

So people will be able to openly say vile things about Mohammad? Nice!


5 posted on 10/27/2018 7:54:19 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: bigdaddy45

This isn’t about free speech. It’s about Ireland drinking the progressive koolaid and committing suicide.


6 posted on 10/27/2018 7:54:32 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Really?

The U.S. has been on the fast track to Hell long before Ireland.


7 posted on 10/27/2018 7:56:21 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

What about speaking ill of Irish people? Is that allowed in Ireland?


8 posted on 10/27/2018 7:56:29 PM PDT by cmj328 (We live here.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
??? What are you talking about? You think losing a couple million people to famine would be great? Ah. The pro-genocide voice chimes in.

Great? For what?

The Irish blasphemy has never been enforced, wasn't even "enforceable" for most of its history because they didn't have an actual definition for what constitutes blasphemy.

You want to try defining it to the satisfaction of fellow FReepers and Free Speech advocates?

And Europe-wide, the only people criminally convicted via blasphemy laws are people who said true but offensive things about Muhammad!

I sure want to be free to keep doing that.

9 posted on 10/27/2018 7:56:57 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (This is War.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Blasphemy? No big deal. Abortion? Despicable! An Indian faggot Prime Minister? Despicable!


10 posted on 10/27/2018 8:03:34 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (I've Never Owned Slaves...You've Never Picked Cotton.End Of "Discussion".)
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To: Gene Eric
Really yourself. We have safeguards in place, like our Constitution. If anything, the U.S. is back on the right path.

Ireland has liberalized by accepting abortion on demand, homosexuality in the church, and low population growth. That's a recipe for disaster.

11 posted on 10/27/2018 8:04:08 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Mrs. Don-o
You think losing a couple million people to famine would be great?

Well, it's either that or get conquered by Islam or the EU elites. I'd take my chances with the famine.

BTW the 1840s famine made Ireland a stronger nation.

12 posted on 10/27/2018 8:05:58 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: ClearCase_guy

Somehow, I’m sure it wouldn’t work that way.


13 posted on 10/27/2018 8:09:17 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it")
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To: Gene Eric

The divil ye say.

My great great grandmother emigrated from Ireland in the 1800s but I don’t know how to spell it.

Note: Van Morrison was accused of cultural appropriation of black music by a harsh woman who approached him between songs on stage,as shown in Live at Montreux DVD and discussed in several biographies I have. He said to her: “A man paid me to sing here tonight and I’d better do it.”

In books such as Too Late To Stop Now he said white people in the British Isles including Ireland originated the blues.

When African slave blacks overheard the whites’ music in the early US south they started to crudely imitate it and then developed an approximation of the music they took from whites—the blues.
I just love that wonderful story. Can we demand reparations from the blacks now?


14 posted on 10/27/2018 8:15:32 PM PDT by frank ballenger ("End vote fraud,noncitizens & illegals voting & leftist media news censorship or we're finished.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

It’s about free speech. You want “anti-blasphemy “ laws here as well? How about bans on “hate speech”? You sure you’re on the right site?


15 posted on 10/27/2018 8:19:55 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: Antoninus

Ireland is on its way to being a Muslim dominate country.


16 posted on 10/27/2018 8:21:33 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

“Of all the strange crimes that humanity has legislated out of nothing, blasphemy is the most amazing - with obscenity and indecent exposure fighting it out for second and third place.”

-—Robert A. Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long


17 posted on 10/27/2018 8:41:32 PM PDT by Simon Green ("Arm your daughter, sir, and pay no attention to petty bureaucrats.”)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Would that also make it legal to say Homo-Ham-Head was a pedophile?


18 posted on 10/27/2018 8:49:33 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: bigdaddy45
It’s about free speech.

No, it's more of the same EU-directed political correctness that will turn Europe into a mixed version of the 3rd world.

You want “anti-blasphemy “ laws here as well?

Depends on who the anti-blasphemy laws are directed against.

How about bans on “hate speech”?

That's a straw-man argument, you know better than that.

You sure you’re on the right site?

Are you?

19 posted on 10/27/2018 8:53:34 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Depends on who the anti-blasphemy laws are directed against.

Could you be more specific, please? What speech, if any, do you think should be illegal because it is blasphemous?

20 posted on 10/27/2018 9:01:19 PM PDT by Simon Green ("Arm your daughter, sir, and pay no attention to petty bureaucrats.”)
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