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Sweden rules out sweeping changes to free speech law amid Quran burnings (www.aljazeera.com)

submitted 1 year ago by CAVOK to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Danish person here. Don't worry, free-speech absolutists. Our politicians would absolutely never vote anything through that could benefit our Muslim population.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/02/denmark-scraps-334-year-old-blasphemy-law

Apparently Denmark had a not-very-enforced blasphemy law on the books up until 5 years ago until it was removed, and it sounds like it was removed specifically because of disagreement over someone being prosecuted under it over criticism of Islam.

“Religion should not dictate what is allowed and what is forbidden to say publicly,” Bruno Jerup, an MP who proposed to repeal the law, was quoted as saying by Jyllands-Posten. “It gives religion a totally unfair priority in society.”

A Danish man who filmed himself burning the Koran before posting a video of his act on Facebook in 2015 would have faced a blasphemy trial next week, but the case was dropped after the law was revoked.

[+] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] mondo_brondo 60 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

No, that’s not what’s happening. Both the headline and the article indicate that they’re NOT going to pass laws to limit free speech, despite the fact that some Muslim countries have demanded they put a stop to Quran burning protests.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Danish person here: A lot of this is very much "politician speech". They would of course never admit that their proposals would limit free speech in any way. What the Danish government seems to be planning is a ban on burning the Quran (and other holy texts) outside of embassies, which obviously is a restrictions of free speech, albeit a minor one.

The other narrative that Lars Løkke (Foreign Minister) is hitting at the moment is that the abolition of the blasphemy law in 2017 went too far, and rolling it back a bit is necessary to protect "Danish interests".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"Islam" is not demanding anything as it isnt a monolithic institution or group. Also fascists and their conservative enablers are long past the point of caring for facts or reason. Preemptively giving in to their potential rage is only helping them gain more power and it will not stop their rage.

Also according to that logic countries like Germany would be limitinf free speech, because burning Torah in front of a synagogue or jewish institution would be considered a hate crime in the same way that showing the Nazi salute or Flag in public is. Hate speech must not and cannot be covered under free speech. Publicly and demonstratively burning symbols of minority groups is a clear threat and call to hate against them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It's not hate. It's critique. Religious maniacs are not a minority group. They're insane cults who damage children both mentally and physically through ritualistic genital mutilation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As long as ex Muslims are protesting like that I am fine with it. If white nationalists would do the same I would consider it at least extremely tasteless, maybe even a hate crime. Context matters.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Coming originally from a country where the blasphemy laws on the books are regularly used to harass even religious people who deviate from the dogma interpretation of their co-believers (and definitely used to harass irreligious people), I definitely do not want to see blasphemy remain or become a criminal matter.

We can work against the harassment of religion-defined minorities without resorting to blasphemy laws.