Global/Foreign Issue

Irish atheists use Bjork, Mark Twain to challenge Blasphemy law

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/01/02/ireland.blasphemy.law/index.html

There is a new blasphemy law in Ireland that challenges the Irish atheist citizens. This law was passed in July but went into effect on January 1, 2010. Some of the blasphemous quotations on religion being published by an Irish atheist group include Jesus, Bjork, and Mohammed. Atheist Ireland has challenged the law, which punishes blasphemy with a $35,800 fine. The group has mentioned on their site that they support any religion adopted by an Irish citizen, however are not intended to insult religious sect and their sacred matters.
The law is broken when a person insults or abuses sacred religious matters which will cause outrage within religious members of society, however, those who are guilty of breaking the blasphemy law can counterattack their actions by way of proving value in their words such as academic, political, artistic, and scientific.
Atheist groups in Ireland have commented that this blasphemy law is dangerous and silly because of the consequence of religious outrage. Some atheists have gone on to say that all people “have the right to be treated justly, and be responsible to treated others the same….Blasphemy laws silence people to protect ideas because people have the right to express and hear ideas about religion even if some find them outrageous”. The atheist group has urged their government to repeal this blasphemy law as well as removing references of God from the country’s constitution.
According to www.state.gov, Ireland is more than 92% religious (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Muslim, and Jewish) making them the dominant group, which refers to a minority group’s relationship to the rest of society, in the country.
Based on the article, it is evident that the government has proposed a law that agrees with functional theory, a stable or cooperative social system in which everything has a function and provides the basis of a harmonious society, even though the law initially creates conflict theory, society is continually engaged in a series of disagreements, tensions and classes, for the atheist minority population.
This type of conflict within two groups can create a result in ethnoviolence, hostile behavior against people solely because of their race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Not only is this on the basis of favoritism, but it also negatively compares people based on their social class, one categorization sociologists use to designate people’s place in the stratification hierarchy, where people in a particular social class have a similar level of income, individual’s membership in particular racial, religious, and status groups.
This Blasphemy law denies free speech and promotes the debate on cultural determinism, transmission of cultural inadequacies, continues. There are various people in Ireland, whether they are atheist or not, that should understand the problems that arise due to this law. It is dangerous because people can establish hate groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Crimes may increase due to this “silly but dangerous” law. People should be able to accept the diverse culture within their country, whether one person thinks their lifestyle is wrong or not.