The story that refuses to go away in the papers and on the web is the firestorm over the Mohammad cartoons published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten. As the rhetoric concerning free speech and religious respect gets shriller, angrier and more Danish flags and embassies get incinerated, I would like to ask these simple questions.
Why do countries, states and municipalities insist on putting laws on the books that they have no intention of enforcing? Why do politicians introduce laws to appease interest groups knowing that law enforcement and the court system can't fairly enforce them.
Danish law states that public insult or defamation of a recognized religion in Denmark is punishable by fines or four months in jail. After the cartoons were published in September, Danish Muslim groups asked their government to enforce the blasphemy law. In January, the court threw out the case stating that free speech is more important than local religious sensibilities.
And mayhem began. And all over the web, bloggers began to point out the many public insults to Christianity and Judaism in America and the Middle East and say "hey what about us? we've been insulted too!" However the story is about Danish law and what happens when the law (misguided or stupid) is not applied fairly to a minority group.
What I want to know is why does Denmark, a very secular country, have religious hate speech laws at all? What is even stranger is that this law was passed in the 1930s, and not left over from the 1600s. And why is Denmark so shocked that their very pious and religious Muslim minority can't just ignore this law like all the secular blonde Danes.
These are just questions I have. How can a government official decide what is blasphemous and what is not? And how can government officials do that fairly when said government only supports one religion through Danish taxpayer support. What is more important "a right or a law" and who decides?
I'll leave the last words to the Danish Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). He was quite famous or infamous for his fight with the official Danish Lutheran Church. He called church officials "cannibals".."parasites" .."drones" .. He wrote that Christendom is Satan's Invention". An attack on recognized religion? Did he break the law?
Isn't it Obvious is an online diary of news items, websites, and blog posts that I am reading. It's obvious you should read them too. You and I are now part of the biggest social science experiment of the 21st century.
