Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
As I noted a few months ago, Ireland now has a law punishing blasphemy and a group of atheists in Ireland is challenging that law by posting blasphemous quotations to its website. The first one, ironically, is from Jesus:
1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: "Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.
I particularly like this one:
12. Salman Rushdie, 1990: "The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes." In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because of blasphemous passages in Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.
Blasphemy laws are vile and barbaric. Ireland should be ashamed of passing one and they should vote out anyone who voted for it.
Politics
Comments
I wonder if it's illegal in Ireland for people that are not Irish citizens to post so-called blasphemous statements on websites located in Ireland. If so it'd be great if a campaign were started to get free speech advocates from around the world to post something that breaks Ireland's new blasphemy laws. I'd be both eager and honored to participate by posting statements the government of Ireland considers blasphemy.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 4, 2010 9:20 AM
Re atheist blog
I especially like #20 on their list from none other then Joe the rat.
Posted by: SLC | January 4, 2010 9:23 AM
My guess is the Irish goverment will simply ignore I.E. The "some defenses permitted" clause in the law will allow the government to say that they're making a political or legal point, which is a defense, therefore allowed.
I don't think a bunch of well-educated, culturally western atheists is the minority group for which this discriminatory jackboot is intended, and the government won't risk losing public support for their odious instrument by appyling it to people who look and mostly act like the majority.
Posted by: eric | January 4, 2010 9:49 AM
The person behind the law is apparently named Fianna Fail. Just thought that was a fun tidbit.
Posted by: Jeff | January 4, 2010 10:18 AM
I wonder if it's illegal in Ireland for people that are not Irish citizens to post so-called blasphemous statements on websites located in Ireland. If so it'd be great if a campaign were started to get free speech advocates from around the world to post something that breaks Ireland's new blasphemy laws
That's a great way of creating legal liabilities for Irish websites without facing the risk of prosecution yourself. Not very helpful, I'd have thought, although I'm sure some Irish people will indeed be happy to host the comments and take the risk.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | January 4, 2010 10:22 AM
Jeff, Fianna Fáil -- which means "warriors of Ireland" -- is a political party, not a person.
Posted by: MadGastronomer | January 4, 2010 10:24 AM
Jeffy, FYI Fianna Fail is a political party, not a person. They're still in the wrong on this one though.
Posted by: Matty | January 4, 2010 10:24 AM
@Jeff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fianna_F%C3%A1il
It's an Irish political party. When they first proposed this law, I think it was Michael Heath who said:
Which was hilarious.
Posted by: Dan L. | January 4, 2010 10:26 AM
MadGastronomer,
The correct translation is Soldiers of Destiny
Posted by: Naughtius Maximus | January 4, 2010 10:28 AM
Would it be possible to post the comments only on websites owned by members of the Dail who voted for the law?
Posted by: Matty | January 4, 2010 10:29 AM
What constitutes a website "located in Ireland"? Does that mean that any tld which is hosted in Ireland or a tld of .ie which is hosted anywhere? I'm just very fuzzy on what the legal concept of website location is. I have no idea where my typepad blog is hosted. I host my e-mail from a UK provider so do I need to understand privacy as it is handled in the UK and not really care what it is in the US (where I am physically). Are e-mails I send subject to UK libel laws?
Posted by: /Mike | January 4, 2010 10:31 AM
That appears to be highly debatable, actually. I assume that you take that notion from the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny. (As I did, but I actually stopped and researched it before posting the definition.) But "Fail" refers to the ancient (mythical) city of Falias, from which the Stone came originally. And Ireland itself was sometimes known as Inisfail, and Fail has been used as a short form of that name. The Stone of Destiny is also called the Stone of Ireland for that reason. So while Soldiers of Destiny is a modern translation, it is not necessarily the most accurate one.
Oh, and "Warriors" is really a much better translation for "Fianna" than "Soldiers," as the Bronze Age Irish didn't really have anything we might really call soldiers, but instead had largely independently-acting warriors.
Posted by: MadGastronomer | January 4, 2010 10:55 AM
You're right, apologies. I should have stated that the intended translation/interpretation is Soldiers of Destiny (that I'm almost sure of).
Posted by: Naughtius Maximus | January 4, 2010 11:01 AM
Ireland = Destiny = FAIL?
Posted by: DaveL | January 4, 2010 11:01 AM
Speaking of translations, how do the actual members of Fianna Fail translate their name? Since this is the name of an organization, it seems to me the people in the organization (or its leaders at least) own their own name, and should, within reasonable limits, have the final say in what their name means.
Posted by: Raging Bee | January 4, 2010 11:08 AM
@Naughtius Maximus
"Intended translation" is true enough. *rolls eyes at the pretentiousness of it*
@DaveL
*rolls eyes* Yes, yes, you're very clever. We all see how clever you are by making the incredibly obvious visual pun of pretending that a word in another language with an entirely different meaning is the same as an English word with a similar spelling.
Posted by: MadGastronomer | January 4, 2010 11:10 AM
Raging Bee, the party was founded in the 1920's and was very Nationalistic so they chose "Fianna" as it's based on a group in ancient Irish mythology called The Fianna who were a group of warriors in Ulster
Posted by: Naughtius Maximus | January 4, 2010 11:17 AM
Raging Bee, a quick search of their website turns up a reference to soldiers of destiny as the prefered translation.
Incidentally I noticed that the full name is Fianna Fail The Republican Party I have a feeling some Americans may have comments on that.
Posted by: Matty | January 4, 2010 11:18 AM
@MadGastronomer:
Oh, get over yourself. If the humorous idiosyncrasies of cross-cultural communication offend you so much why don't you head on down to engrish.com and give them what for?
Posted by: DaveL | January 4, 2010 11:25 AM
Okay, "Soldiers of Destiny" it is then.
Posted by: Raging Bee | January 4, 2010 11:31 AM
@DaveL
Oh, I quite enjoy translingual humor. When it's actually clever and funny, at least. Yours was so very facile, especially when the same comparison had already been made, much more cleverly and subtly, earlier in the thread.
Posted by: MadGastronomer | January 4, 2010 11:33 AM
The comparison was made to the name of the party, not the additional meanings that you provided later. When the conservatives in Canada formed the Conservative Reform Alliance Party, it was funny. If it had turned out that CRAP was also an idiom used by western Canadians to refer both to themselves and the concept of, say, message marketing, it would have been far more so.
Posted by: DaveL | January 4, 2010 11:45 AM
Personally I like #20 on the list. What are the odds that Pope Benedict will be arrested when he visits Ireland?
Posted by: NoAstronomer | January 4, 2010 11:59 AM
Speaking as a yank, any american who thinks "Republican" in the Irish context is equivalent to "GOP" is an idiot. Of course most of our high schoolers probably couldn't find Ireland on a world map, so I wouldn't be surprised if one of my fellow countrymen did weigh in with some idiotic comment as you predict.
Posted by: eric | January 4, 2010 12:03 PM
My apologies. Still appropriately named though.
Posted by: Jeff | January 4, 2010 12:07 PM
Of all countries in the world, I would assume that Ireland would want to get as far away from religion as possible.
What has the Catholic Church ever done for Ireland? They lost the land, lost the language, but still have the corrupt church. What a raw deal.
Posted by: Blue Nine | January 4, 2010 12:39 PM
"Are e-mails I send subject to UK libel laws?"
UK libel law makes extremely wide jurisdictional claims. Basically anything published in the UK is covered, and the courts have (until very recently) deemed that anything read by anyone in the UK is deemed to have been published there. So if you sent an email to someone in the UK, it was published there. If the email was forwarded to someone in the UK, it was published there. I've no real idea, though, what the Irish law is on this point.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | January 4, 2010 12:45 PM
Blue Nine, below is the pre-amble of the Irish Constitution.
In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,
Imagine if God hated Ireland, what would it have been like.
Posted by: Naughtius Maximus | January 4, 2010 12:58 PM
Do the blasphemy laws apply at the pub level after a few pints of Ole Tongue Loosener? I may have to rethink some potential travel plans.
Posted by: jimmiraybob | January 4, 2010 1:22 PM
The "Fail" in Fianna Fail is both spelled and pronounced differently, with the gaelic 'fada' above the "a" - as in "Fáil" results in the pronunciation "faw-ill"
I should also point out that the blasphemy law is the result of both Fianna Fáil AND the environmentalist 'Green Party' who make up the coalition government that passed this legislation.
There was virtually no public call for this law (in case people are wondering if it is the usual Roman Catholic influence at work here) apart from Irish Islamic fundamentalists (of which there are only a handful).
On the other hand there have been almost no protests about the law apart from the Irish Atheists. The main liberal Irish paper, the "Irish Times" even came out with an editorial in favor of the law the other day.
Unfortunately, in my experience, the law as it is currently written (essentially a legal enforcement of Mooney style accomodationism) pretty much reflects the consensus view of the majority of the Irish population over what should be made illegal (religious pedophile ring raping children = not offensive so no prosecutions, uppity atheist saying she thinks God doesn't exist = 100,000 Euro fine for offending the religious minded).
Posted by: Sigmund | January 4, 2010 1:35 PM
Well, at least our lot in the Norn' Iron assmbly aren't getting the blame for it this time.
Posted by: Peter Henderson | January 4, 2010 2:34 PM
At least that handful did provide some wonderfully ironic moments, like this one.
Posted by: Abby Normal | January 4, 2010 4:54 PM
Abby, that is not one of them. That's someone in England protesting about the Danish cartoons. In Ireland the only Islamic fanatic I know is a homegrown convert to Islam who could just as well be a fundamentalist Christian or Jew, such is his need for confrontation. There really arent enough of them to get a public demonstration together so, like Bill Donohue, the internet is where he gets his kicks, feigning offense at the drop of a hat and demanding his religion be "respected" (such as by not criticizing the harm it, and many other religions causes around the world)
Posted by: Sigmund | January 4, 2010 6:03 PM
Not for nothing, but Ireland has had a blasphemy law from its inception as a modern state - it's one of the few crimes listed in its *Constitution*. The Minister for Justice has quite rightly pointed out that he's under somewhat of an obligation to follow the Constitution, and in debate has suggested that he has no particular beef with amending the Constitution to remove this stupid clause, but fears that the population won't support the necessary referendum.
So in fact this is almost a liberalization - they've defined the penalty as a fine (not prison), and written the law so as to "make it virtually impossible to get a successful prosecution out of it". That's the Minister's own words! I believe he was also the one to refer to this inherently kneecapped law as a very Irish solution to a very Irish problem, which I thought was apt.
The problem is rather analogous to the US's Second Amendment - a ridiculous clause that if strictly interpreted would guarantee the rights of private citizens to own weapons of mass destruction. Since the political will to actually amend the Constitution is lacking, the only thing to do is to legislate around the edges in a way that refines and contains the broad language of that document.
Posted by: KSE | January 5, 2010 4:38 PM
I'll add one more thing - yes, 25,000 euros is a steep fine, but it is my understanding it was set there because otherwise you'd be in the rather weird position of trying federal crimes in the Irish equivalent of small claims court. This is of course entirely a question of appearances, and therefore stupid, but hey that's politics.
Posted by: KSE | January 5, 2010 4:44 PM
KSE, there are no such things as federal crimes in the Irish Republic.
The reason it was set at 25,000 Euros is that the minister behind the legislation reluctantly agreed to opposition requests to change the wording of the law which in its original form had a fine of 100,000 Euro and had none of the current exemptions (at the moment there are exceptions based on artistic or educational reasons).
The blasphemy law is currently part of the defamation act, a piece of legislation that is similar in effect to the UK law it mirrors. Its primary use is the financial threat of court action being taken in the first place.
The end effect of this is to make the current civil blasphemy law far more financially dangerous than having blasphemy treated as a criminal act.
Blasphemy as a crime would require the presumption of innocence and the state having to prove its case. Blasphemy as a civil law now means the accused has to prove (at great expense) his or her innocence of intent.
As for the constitutional question it would have been easy to write the law in such a way that the end fine was nominal and thus it would have preserved the letter of the law of the Irish constitution but would have made it completely impractical for it to ever come to court.
Would the Irish public have voted to remove blasphemy from the constitution? Maybe, maybe not, however there was ample opportunity to find out since there was a constitutional vote planned for late in 2009 (on the EU constitution) that could easily have included this question.
If you want to know the real reason for the current law don't look towards the catholic church, look towards the industry that supports the ruling party, the farming and food processing industry. The last thing they want is a repeat of the Danish situation where a whole nations food is boycotted in Islamic countries due to the act of one publisher. If you look at the actual wording and the financial cost of prosecution you will see that the current legislation is tailor made for preventing this scenario.
Posted by: Sigmund | January 5, 2010 10:15 PM
"Imagine if God hated Ireland, what would it have been like."
OOOOOOOO migawd. Alabama?
Posted by: mswzebo | January 5, 2010 10:31 PM
"The last thing they want is a repeat of the Danish situation where a whole nations food is boycotted in Islamic countries due to the act of one publisher."
When I think of Danish food, I think of bacon. Can't imagine that a boycott by Islamic countries would hit them that hard.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | January 6, 2010 7:46 AM
"Can't imagine that a boycott by Islamic countries would hit them that hard."
Why the Irish are so worried is that a significant amount of Irish beef production is for export to the middle east market. Its even slaughtered 'Halal' style to make it suitable for sale to muslims.
Posted by: Sigmund | January 7, 2010 4:27 AM
A short film detailing the history and context of the Irish Blasphemy Legislation. http://blasphemy-law-ireland.blogspot.com/2010/01/everybody-knows-what-blasphemy-is-short.html
Posted by: Baz | January 7, 2010 5:25 AM