Humanists International Chief Executive Urges the End of ‘Blasphemy’ Law in Ireland
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/09/06
A colleague, and a smart and good man, Gary McLelland — Chief Executive of Humanists International previously known as International Humanist and Ethical Union, spoke on Ireland at a conference.
The conference was covering the issues of censorship and humanism. In particular, the major, and increasingly mainstream, issue of blasphemy, which, in a sense, amounts to a religious privilege over the non-religious and questioning religious people.
The conference, the All-Ireland Summer School, is coordinated and organized by the Humanist Association of Ireland and the Irish Freethinkers and Humanists with the titled, for this year, being “Humanism, Freethought and Censorship.”
McLelland stated that there are a number of laws against blasphemy, so-called ‘blasphemy’ laws, in Europe, which can “set a terrible precedent” for the international scene because this can provide a basis for the punishment of people who criticize religions or faith tenets.
Many countries still exist in which blasphemy is still punishable by death or with imprisonment, even for bloggers such as the famous Waleed Al-Husseini — who now lives in France and founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of France.
The Republic of Ireland has a referendum on October 26 2018 for a vote on the blasphemy law in Ireland regarding Article 40 with a clause, which states:
The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.
The Humanists International, previously IHEU, made an urgent call to the voters to take an assertive stand for the values of freedom of expression, humanism, and secularism to make sure that blasphemy laws, such as this one in Article 40, be completely scrapped.
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