The Love That Dares Speak Its Name - Best Troll EVAH

[MadImmortalMan]

None should have any protection.

[Sheilbh]

None should have any protection.

Well yeah that's a position that some people take that's as coherent as 'all should have protection'.  I think what was offensive was the situation that had reading a poem about sucking Christ's cock banned but a book arguing that the blood libels real and that Jews should be killed was fine.  And, I think of the two I'd rather the latter illegal.

[Martinus]

I would think that these usually cover completely different areas. 

For example, I fail to see how this poem could be seen as inciting "religious hatred".

Well that was the government's position.  It was preposterous that  the Christian church was protected from blasphemy (though this was beginning to be ignored, there was a public reading of it by Peter Tatchell in Trafalgar Square and he wasn't arrested or anything) while all other religions were fair game.  I think the government decided that from a social position what's more worrying isn't people denigrating a faith (Jerry Springer: The Opera, for example) but people trying to whip up hatred against adherents to a faith.

So they instituted that law which gave all religions equal protection and then abolished the blasphemy laws.

Ah gotcha. I misinterpreted your post as saying that blasphemy laws were made redundant because the poem would be banned under the new anti-hatred laws, and I found that worrying to see the law applied so broadly.

[Martinus]

None should have any protection.

Indeed. Besides, the law against inciting to hatred should be neutral in terms of ideology - it should not mention religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation etc. - it should just state that anyone calling to violence against human beings - whether by virtue of them belonging to some group, having a certain trait or being designated individually - should be prosecuted.

[The Brain]

I too would like to see the AQ haters sent to jail. The hateful response of NYC after 911 made me physically sick.

[Caliga]

Could an omnipotent, all-loving God fuck all men on the planet if he wanted? Who was the Languishite that attended a Bible study class? Now that's a question he should ask next time he goes there.

I think you might be thinking of me... I've never attended a Bible study class, but my mother in law goes to them and babbles on about the things she "learns" in them all the time.

[Valmy]

And all this time I thought Jesus meant 'Love your neighbor as yourself' in a Platonic way.