Priest battles ‘hate crime’ charges for criticizing Islam

Catholic News Agency ^ | Martin Barillas

[ebb tide]

Priest battles ‘hate crime’ charges for criticizing Islam

A Spanish priest is facing up to three years in prison on “hate crime” charges for his heated words about Islam.

Last month, Father Custodio Ballester and two other individuals received a summons from a provincial court in Spain to answer charges of an alleged “hate crime” for criticizing Islamic extremism. 

If convicted, Ballester could be forced to pay a fine of more than $1,600 and serve up to three years in prison. The charges date back to 2020, when the Court Prosecutor’s Office in Catalonia  accused Ballester of a “hate crime” based on what he wrote in a 2016 article titled “The Impossible Dialogue with Islam.”

Four years later, Ballester is still awaiting trial on criminal charges for criticizing the faith that he says aims to “destroy” all those who refuse to recognize Mohammed as “the last and ultimate prophet of God.” 

“I know Muslims who were not offended and understood perfectly well that I was not referring to them but to those who live Islam in a violent, radical way,” he told CNA. 

Ballester, 59, serves a parish in Barcelona within the archdiocese led by Bishop Juan José Omella. He has long been known for his pro-life activism.

“In Spain, ‘hate crime’ was invented and is directed at any speech that directly or indirectly refers to discrimination, encouragement of hostility, or inducement to violence,” Ballester told CNA. Previously, he pointed out, the criminal code was directed at whether someone had actually done something.

Asked whether he is prepared to spend three years in prison should he be convicted on the hate crime charges, Ballester said: “It doesn’t seem right to be convicted for something I’ve said, but in Spain anything is possible. But if I am convicted, this will no longer be Spain but Pakistan, where you can be killed for blaspheming the Koran or Mohammed.”

“There is no longer any true right to free speech in Spain,” Ballester said.

Ballester has never been reluctant to speak out, even when it means challenging the perspective of his own bishop. The essay that earned him the hate crime charge was originally a response to a pastoral message from Omella titled “The Necessary Dialogue with Islam.”  

In his controversial response, Ballester wrote: “This new reactivation of Christian-Muslim dialogue, paralyzed by the alleged ‘imprudences’ on the part of the late Pope Benedict XVI, is very far from becoming a reality. Islam does not allow dialogue. For Islam, either you believe, or you are an infidel who must be subdued one way or another.”

[ebb tide]

Ballester has never been reluctant to speak out, even when it means challenging the perspective of his own bishop. The essay that earned him the hate crime charge was originally a response to a pastoral message from Omella titled “The Necessary Dialogue with Islam.”  

[ebb tide]

Ping

[Tell It Right]

When the Reconquista ended in 1492, I bet nobody in Spain ever thought it’d be a crime again to criticize Islam.

[whitney69]

Spain doesn’t have a first amenment.

wy69

[xoxox]

“dialog” is another synonym for submission.

[piytar]

“There is no longer any true right to free speech in Spain,” Ballester said.

Ballestar is of course correct. But my I add:

There is no longer any true right to free speech in America

Lots of evidence exists, but just one recent example is From landing whales to snatching minnows: Steve Baker’s arrest disgraces the FBI

[jimwatx]

Hate crime laws need to be eliminated in their entirety. The establishment just uses them to censor and silence people that challenge their narrative.

[from occupied ga]

“Spain doesn’t have a first amendment”

And effectively neither do we anymore. The government has contracted out suppression of free speech to private companies like Fakebook etc. the FBI and the DOJ are holding the J6 protestors for petitioning the Government for a redress of grievances etc.

[Leaning Right]

> Spain doesn’t have a first amendment. <

Yep. But the EU does have the “European Convention on Human Rights”. Article 10 of that Convention provides the right to free expression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_10_of_the_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights

Now here’s the thing. Article 10 also puts limitations on that right. And what are those limitations? It’s worded so that the limitations are whatever the EU overlords want them to be.

I fear that we will eventually see the same thing in the US. We have a 1A. But “progressive” judges will tell us “hate speech” is not 1A protected.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Wonder if the movie EL CID is still legal to show in Spain.

Opening scene:

The Prophet has commanded us
to rule the world.
Where in all your land of Spain
is the glory of Allah?
When men speak of you,
they speak of poets...
music makers, doctors, scientists.
Where are your warriors?
You dare call yourselves
sons of the Prophet?
You have become women!
Burn your books.
Make warriors of your poets.
Let your doctors invent
new poisons for our arrows.
Let your scientists
invent new war machines.
And then, kill!
Burn.
Infidels live on your frontiers.
Encourage them to kill each other.
And when they are weak and torn...
I will sweep up from Africa...
and thus the empire of the one God,
the true God Allah...
- Allah is the one God.
- will spread.
First, across Spain.
Then, across Europe.
Then, the whole world!

[Faith Presses On]

Bkmk.

[Organic Panic]

Islam has been at war with everything, even itself, since it was founded by low IQ tribal pedos. It is the only religion I can think of that encourages and rewards the most base evil parts of humanity.

[whitney69]

Article 10 does leave an out for how the particular countries want to run their lives. Section two of the Article 10 covers that:

2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law.

The Spanish Código Penal has article 510 forbids ill-intended speech against individuals.

So in their country, article 10 has been erased for this. And that is their privilege.

The real difference with the problem here is that our speech dictating would be determined by our laws and not by other country’s or groups of countries determinations. Their laws don’t apply here, and yes, we have enough problems with our own laws.

wy69

[EnderWiggin1970]

They are going to need another Reconquista.

[bantam]

Disgusting!

[karnage]

Islam is incompatible with Western Civilization.

[ebb tide]

St James the Greater and Catholic Militancy

[Uncle Miltie]

islam is a totalitarian death cult founded by a child rapist.