[/caption]From PakistanChristian.tv:
Irish atheists have already begun challenging a new blasphemy law that went into effect on New Year's Day.
The group Atheist Ireland has published a series of quotations on religion in an attempt to challenge the new law. The 25 "blasphemous" quotations include the words of Jesus, Mohammed, Mark Twain, and Salman Rushdie.
CNN reports Atheist Ireland published the list on its Website www.atheist.ie on Friday. The group says it aims to challenge the law, which makes blasphemy a crime punishable by a $35,800 fine.
"Despite these quotes being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, we unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them," the group said on the site.
"We unreservedly support the right of any Irish citizen to make comparable statements about matters held sacred by any religion without fear of being criminalized, and without having to prove to a court that a reasonable person would find any particular value in the statement."
CNN says lawmakers in staunchly Catholic Ireland passed the law in July, but it came into force January 1.
According to the new law, a person breaks the law by saying or publishing anything "grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion."
CNN says those found guilty of breaking the blasphemy law may try to defend themselves by proving that a reasonable person would find literary, artistic, political, scientific or academic value in what they said or published, the law says.
According to CNN, Atheist Ireland called the law "silly and dangerous," because it provides an incentive for religious outrage.
"We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly," the group said.
"Blasphemy laws are unjust: They silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilized society, people have a right to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous."
The group urged the Irish government to repeal the law. It also asked lawmakers for a referendum on removing all references to God from the Irish constitution.
Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper (www.guardian.co.uk ) reports Irish atheists challenged the new blasphemy laws as soon as the law went into effect.
McDonald writes that secular campaigners in Ireland have published a series of anti-religious quotes and say they will challenge law if charged with blasphemy.
McDonald says that secular campaigners in the Irish Republic defied a strict new blasphemy law, which came into force January 1, by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations online and promising to fight the legislation in court.
The new law, which was passed in July, means that blasphemy in Ireland is now a crime punishable with a fine of up to ?25,000 Euros (£22,000 GB Pounds).
The newspaper says the new law defines blasphemy as "publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defenses permitted."
According to the newspaper, the justice minister, Dermot Ahern, said that the law was necessary because while immigration had brought a growing diversity of religious faiths, the 1936 constitution extended the protection of belief only to Christians.
But McDonald reports that Atheist Ireland, a group that claims to represent the rights of atheists, responded to the new law by publishing 25 anti-religious quotations on its website, from figures including Richard Dawkins, Frank Zappa and the former Observer newspaper editor and Irish ex-minister Conor Cruise O'Brien.
Michael Nugent, the group's chair, said that it would challenge the law through the courts if it were charged with blasphemy.
Nugent said: "This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic states led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.
"We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilized society, people have a right to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous."
Nugent said that despite the published quotations being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, Atheist Ireland "unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them, and we unreservedly support the right of any Irish citizen to make comparable statements about matters held sacred by any religion without fear of being criminalized, and without having to prove to a court that a reasonable person would find any particular value in the statement."
Nugent said that the group would be prepared to take on the state if anyone complained about the quotes and that the campaign to repeal the law was part of a wider battle to create a more secular republic.
"You would think that after all the scandals the Catholic church endured in 2009 the introduction of a blasphemy law would be the last thing that the Irish state would be considering in terms of defending religion and its place in society.
"We ask Fianna Fáil and the Green party to repeal their anachronistic blasphemy law, as part of the revision of the defamation act that is included within the act. We ask them to hold a referendum to remove the reference to blasphemy from the Irish constitution."
The group is also asking Ireland's elected representatives to support a referendum "to remove references to God from the Irish constitution, including the clauses that prevent atheists from being appointed as president of Ireland or as a judge without swearing a religious oath asking God to direct them in their work."
Karla Adam, Washington Post Foreign Service special correspondent, says Atheists in Ireland are risking possible prosecution with an audacious online challenge to the country's new blasphemy law.
Under the law, which went into effect Friday, a person can be found guilty of blasphemy if "he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion."
The penalty is a fine of up to 25,000 euros, or more than $35,000 USD.
Adam writes that in a bid to demonstrate that the law is outdated and largely unenforceable, a group named Atheist Ireland on Friday published on its website 25 potentially blasphemous quotations from figures such as Jesus Christ, Muhammad, George Carlin, Pope Benedict XVI and Mark Twain, who opined in 1909: "When the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit.He slays, slays, slays!"
"Two days ago, there was no question over whether these quotes were legal. Now there is a question, and that is very bizarre," Michael Nugent, Atheist Irelands' chairman, said in an interview Saturday.
The newspaper reports that blasphemy was already a criminal offense in Ireland under the country's 1937 constitution. But until now, the language had been too murky to make prosecutions feasible. In 1999, Ireland's Supreme Court dismissed the last case to test the law because blasphemy was not clearly defined.
The newspaper says that by clarifying the term and imposing a hefty fine, the government has angered critics, who say the law undermines the state's increasing independence from the Catholic Church.
There was "no clamor" for a new blasphemy law, said Eoin O'Dell, a senior lecturer in law at Trinity College Dublin.
"Most of the commentary in Ireland has been pretty negative," he added.
Adam writes that O'Dell said when Ireland's constitution was drafted, church and state were tightly entwined, noting that the preamble begins, "In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity," in contrast to the U.S. Constitution's "We the People of the United States."
The newspaper reports that despite the charter's "very Christian framework," O'Dell said the close relationship between church and state in Ireland has waned in recent years -- the "special position" of the Catholic Church was removed from the constitution by referendum in 1972, and the ban on divorce was repealed in 1995.
Dermot Ahern, Ireland's justice minister, has said that he would have preferred simply to abolish the previous blasphemy law.
"My personal position is that church and state should be separate," he said in a speech in May.
"But I do not have the luxury of ignoring our constitution."
The newspaper reports that faced with choosing between the pricey referendum that would be required to amend the constitution and reform that would help judges address the 1999 Supreme Court ruling, Ahern said, "I chose reform."
Nugent, who estimates that there are a quarter-million atheists in Ireland, said the new law is "silly" and "literally medieval."
Some of the 25 blasphemous quotations as posted to the Atheist Ireland website, with comments on each by the group are included below.
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