A Netfriend (wisely) wrote:

Religious vilification legislation is a disaster. It does not take too much reflection to realise why, especially when we can see what happens in practice.

What does the Koran say? Well, that depends on what Muslim group you talk to. What does “jihad” or “struggle” mean in practice? Again, that depends on what Muslim group you talk to. Barely a day goes by when we do not hear of a terrorist act committed somewhere around the world by a group who conceive of their actions as inspired by the Koran. Clearly, *some* Muslims do believe that they can interpret the Koran this way, and *others* do not.

To say to a group of Christians who have experienced atrocities at the hands of Muslims that they cannot refer to the justification of those atrocities by Muslims with reference to the Koran, is offensive to those Christians, and a denial of the bleeding obvious! To use the legislation of the State to define what can and cannot be said about a religion’s belief is not only to side with a particular religion, but also with a particular faction within that religion.

The same applies to atrocities committed by Christians in the name of their Faith. Are we not to be able to state this to be the case without fear of offending Christian organisations? Shall Christians haul Muslims before the courts because they refer to the way in which Christian “liberation theologians” justify armed uprising on occasions?

It is only by freedom of speech that all religions can be kept honest and held accountable. In this we have an uphill battle. There is a lingering assumption that religious conviction somehow puts a person beyond criticism. Thus we back off outlawing behaviour that we would otherwise not hesitate to ban if it is part of a person’s religion. The same kind of sleight of hand is played within the individual human psyche when a violent act is justified by reference to a religious conviction in order to by-pass the censure of conscience. To quote Blaise Pascal, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious convictions”!

If someone were to attempt to enact “Political Vilification” legislation, we would immediately recognise it as the first step of a totalitarian regime. For some reason, the whole notion of “religion” blinds us to the same reality, even though religion is inextricably bound up with politics. If the misguided souls who authored such legislation had imagined that it would reduce conflict, the results indicate exactly the opposite effect.