On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 07:49:23 +0000 in alt.atheism, Levy Oates (Levy
Oates <levy_oates@hotmail.com>) said, directing the reply to
alt.atheism

The UK government is attempting to introduce a similar law of "incitement to
religious hatred" which will extend this protection to all other religions. It
is intended to get the muslim vote back for the ruling party after its support
for GWB's little tantrum in Iraq. There are concerns that freedom of speech will
be seriously compromised by this act.

Damn right, although the law proposes to protect atheists as well, the
potential for frivolous lawsuits is incredible. As usual our wonderful
government hasn't thought through the implications of the proposed law
and the courts will doubtless go through a very sticky time while
precedents are established.

I made enquiries to the Home Office about the legislation, and
received the reply below:



Reference: T22035/4


Dear Therion Ware,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 7th July 2004 about the proposed
incitement to religious hatred. I have been asked to reply.

The form that this legislation will take is still under consideration.
However, I can say that when the Government proposed introducing an
incitement to religious hatred measure as part of its Anti-Terrorism,
Crime and Security Bill 2001 'religious hatred' meant hatred against a
group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of
religious belief.

The Government did not believe that it was necessary in this context
to define religion in the legislation. The Government believed this
to be a matter which could be left to the courts to interpret in the
wider context of the criminal behaviour being considered.

The Government held that in this context we should not making value
judgements about the nature of a particular religion. It was a
question of deciding whether a criminal offence has been committed
against a person because of, or aggravated by, the perpetrator's
hatred for their religion or belief.

Yours Sincerely


Race Equality Unit

Damn right, although the law proposes to protect atheists as well, the
potential for frivolous lawsuits is incredible. As usual our wonderful
government hasn't thought through the implications of the proposed law
and the courts will doubtless go through a very sticky time while
precedents are established.

I made enquiries to the Home Office about the legislation, and
received the reply below:

Reference: T22035/4

Dear Therion Ware,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 7th July 2004 about the proposed
incitement to religious hatred. I have been asked to reply.

The form that this legislation will take is still under consideration.
However, I can say that when the Government proposed introducing an
incitement to religious hatred measure as part of its Anti-Terrorism,
Crime and Security Bill 2001 'religious hatred' meant hatred against a
group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of
religious belief.

The Government did not believe that it was necessary in this context
to define religion in the legislation. The Government believed this
to be a matter which could be left to the courts to interpret in the
wider context of the criminal behaviour being considered.

The Government held that in this context we should not making value
judgements about the nature of a particular religion. It was a
question of deciding whether a criminal offence has been committed
against a person because of, or aggravated by, the perpetrator's
hatred for their religion or belief.

Yours Sincerely

Race Equality Unit

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 07:49:23 +0000, Levy Oates
<levy_oates@hotmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:23:13 -0500, "Mark Stahl" <stahl@nospam.aecom.yu.edu>
wrote:

Is blasphemy against the law in Britain?

Certain forms. A while back Mary Shitehouse brought a private
prosecution against a magazine for publishing a poem about a gay
Jesus.

Wow. Did she lose?

No, she won.

"The editor of Gay News, the late Denis Lemon, was fined £500 and sentenced to
nine months in prison - suspended for 18 months. Gay News was fined £1,000. "

Source: http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/events/070502ev.htm

The UK government is attempting to introduce a similar law of "incitement to
religious hatred" which will extend this protection to all other religions. It
is intended to get the muslim vote back for the ruling party after its support
for GWB's little tantrum in Iraq. There are concerns that freedom of speech will
be seriously compromised by this act.

The problem here is that religious loonies can't tell the difference
between action and reaction.

They don't think proselytising to the point of religious harrassment,
taking pot shots, lying about people outside their religion etc are
"religious hatred".

But they do think responses telling them where to shove it, are.