Europe’s Alienable Freedom of Speech
The Atlantic: “On Thursday [October 25, 2018], the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld [a woman identified only as E.S.] 2011 conviction for “disparagement of religious precepts,” a crime in Austria. The facts of what E.S. did are not in dispute. She held “seminars” in which she presented her view that Muhammad was indeed a child molester. Dominant Islamic traditions hold that Muhammad’s third wife, Aisha, was 6 at the time of their marriage and 9 at its consummation. Muhammad was in his early 50s. The Austrian woman repeated these claims, and the Austrian court ruled that she had to pay 480 euros or spend 60 days in the slammer [jail]. The ECHR ruled that Austria had not violated her rights.
Predictably, the ECHR decision has rekindled old debates about freedom of expression, the perceived inability of some Muslims to handle polemics against their religion with grace, and… pan-European legal institutions and their tendency to foist outrageous decisions on member states. If you believe, as I do, that the free expression of ideas, including bad ideas, is a human right that no government can legitimately infringe, then you will probably find the ECHR decision appalling, and a bad sign for civil liberties in Europe. You can share this concern whether or not you think Europe’s Muslims will riot at hearing an unkind word about the Prophet.
What you should not believe, however, is that the ECHR’s decision represents a sudden change in European norms and laws about free speech. Those norms and laws have been rotten since long before Europe’s refugee crisis, before the vilification of the European Union by nationalist parties, before anyone thought that digging up dirt on a seventh-century Arabian trader was a matter of political urgency in modern Vienna. European laws (and, indeed, laws in most of the world) have long treated freedom of speech as a dispensable, very much alienable right…
[According to the ECHR], by accusing Muhammad of pedophilia, [E.S.] had merely sought to defame him, without providing evidence that his primary sexual interest in Aisha had been her not yet having reached puberty or that his other wives or concubines had been similarly young. In particular, [E.S.] had disregarded the fact that the marriage with Aisha had continued until the Prophet’s death, when she had already turned eighteen and had therefore passed the age of puberty…
The ECHR also judged E.S.’s claims “capable of arousing justified indignation given that they had not been made in an objective manner.” …That an Austrian court presumes to say what constitutes balance in a case like this is itself a shocking encroachment on E.S.’s freedom of belief. Moreover, Muslim apologists also present a skewed view of the controversy, seemingly without fear of prosecution.
But here’s what’s most appalling: The ECHR’s decision was not wrong, however foolish its reasoning. E.S. “aimed at demonstrating that Muhammad was not a worthy subject of worship,” the court held, and intended to “disparage religious precepts.” If that is a crime—and in Austria it is—then she is guilty, and it falls to the people of Austria to revise their laws to protect her rights, and theirs.
The relative infrequency of prosecution under these statutes has lulled many into believing that they do not exist, or that they are nullities, on the books only for antiquarian reasons. E.S.’s case shows that they are not. In Denmark, the law does not even protect demonstrably true, factual public statements if those statements tend to incite racial or religious hatred. In Ireland, a referendum rid the country of blasphemy laws only yesterday. The United Kingdom abolished its blasphemy law only in 2008…
Non-Europeans and Europeans alike shred the human right to freedom of conscience and expression on a regular basis. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has repeatedly urged countries to criminalize defamation of religion, which in practice means outlawing nearly anything that hurts the sensibilities of a believer. The European Convention on Human Rights specifically reserves the right of its signatories to force citizens to shut up if their statements threaten “public safety” and “health or morals” or might cause, intentionally or otherwise, “disorder or crime.” The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is signed and ratified even by the United States, carves out an exception that allows infringement of speech “for the protection of public order, health, or morals.” Although under U.S. law most attempts to limit speech would be unconstitutional, other countries have provisions to force your silence if what you say will hurt people’s feelings or make them mad enough to commit violence…
…If societies really care about freedom of expression, they need to safeguard that right especially in difficult situations, and not undercut it at the slightest sign that someone might be indignant, let alone violent, over something another person said. The Austrian court purported to balance this right against other legitimate social concerns. But if European courts assess freedom of speech at barely a feather’s weight, as it appears in this case, they should spare us their sanctimony and admit that they do not value free expression at all. Have the courage to admit your cowardice.
The previous cause célèbre over free speech in Austria was the English historian David Irving’s incarceration for Holocaust denial in 2005. Too few came to Irving’s defense, for the obvious reason that no one wanted to have to go through the metaphorical delousing process that association with that man entails. But note the trajectory: He was thrown in jail for lies, and now E.S.’s conviction is upheld not even for lying but for taking up one side of a controversy whose facts will almost certainly never be determined. The American system of virtually limitless debate has proved highly capable of discrediting Irving, and of allowing Islamophobes and Islamists to yap at each other. It blames violence on the violent. It is a model sadly unreplicated in the world, and its time has come on continents other than our own.
Our Comment:
True Christians are charged in the last days with exposing the religious beast and calling all true followers of Christ out of her. This involves religious sensitivities. One can easily see that the laws in Europe will be applied against those who “defame” the Roman Catholic Church or her fallen daughter churches in proclaiming that message. To expose her sins would excite legal attention by the European courts charged with protecting the religious feelings of others.
Prophetic Link:
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Revelation 18:4.
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