WND EXCLUSIVE
BLASPHEMY CRACKDOWN SURGES – ACROSS EUROPE!
Sports authority imposes 2-month ban on athlete for filming friend poking fun at Islam
Bob Unruh
One of Islam’s core beliefs is that no one is allowed to poke fun at Muhammad or his writings – no one, anywhere, ever.
And Europe more and more seems to be subscribing to that religious doctrine, according to a new report from Douglas Murray, an author, commentator and public-affairs analyst, who wrote at the Gatestone Institute.
He explains that not only is Dutch politician Geert Wilders now on trial for agreeing with voters that immigration should be limited, but now a British athlete is being punished for antics, while drunk, that offended Muslims.
“Europe is currently seeing the reintroduction of blasphemy laws through both the front and back doors,” he wrote.
“In Britain, the gymnast Louis Smith has just been suspended for two months by British Gymnastics. This 27-year old sportsman’s career has been put on hold, and potentially ruined, not because of anything to do with athletics but because of something to do with Islam.”
Murray explained a video was uncovered recently of the “four-time Olympic medal-winner and a friend getting up to drunken antics after a wedding.”
The video revealed “a friend taking a rug off a wall and doing an imitation of Islamic prayer rituals,” he explained.
The video, from Smith’s phone, ended up in the hands of a newspaper, resulting in “press castigation and public humiliation” for the young athlete.
“Smith – who is himself of mixed race – was forced to parade on daytime television in Britain and deny that he is a racist, bigot or xenophobe,” Murray explained.
But then sports officials determined Smith’s actions warranted a removal of funding and a two-month ban from his sport.
“This is the re-entry of blasphemy laws through the back door, where newspapers, daytime chat-shows and sports authorities decide between them that one religion is worthy of particular protection.
They do so because they take the religion of Islam uniquely on its own estimation and believe, as well as fear, the warnings of the Islamic blasphemy-police worldwide,” Murray wrote.
The “front-door” reintroduction comes in Wilders’ case. He is on trial now for allegedly inciting opposition to immigrants.
“Wilders is being tried because of a statement at a rally in front of his supporters in March 2014. Ahead of municipal elections, and following reports of a disproportionate amount of crimes being committed in Holland by Muslims of Moroccan origin, Wilders asked a crowd, ‘Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?’ The audience responded, ‘Fewer, fewer.’ To which Wilders responded, ‘Well, we’ll arrange that, then.'”
“Whether or not one feels any support for Wilders’ sentiments is not in fact the point in this case. The point is that by prosecuting someone for saying what he said, the courts in Holland are effectively ruling that there is only one correct answer to the question Wilders asked. They are saying that if someone asks you whether you would like more Moroccans or fewer, people must always answer ‘more,’ or they will be committing a crime,” Murray wrote.
Only weeks ago, a single-judge tribunal in Muslim-dominant Pakistan recommended a review of the nation’s controversial blasphemy law.
It followed by only months a “landmark” decision by a court there that refused to affirm that criticizing the nation’s Islamic anti-blasphemy law is itself illegal.
The decision came in the ever-expanding fallout of the case of Asia Bibi, a mother who was accused and convicted of blasphemy against Islam and sentenced to death for talking about her Christian faith. Her case remains on appeal and pending.
But the blasphemy law there – and even the discussion of its validity – has cost numerous lives in a nation where the accused often are killed by vigilantes before the court system can resolve their cases.
At the time, the Pakistan Supreme Court said “criticizing the country’s notoriously harsh blasphemy laws is not blasphemy,” according to the Barnabas Fund, an organization that serves persecuted Christians worldwide.
Now the Barnabas Fund reports the new tribunal was set up to investigate the riots in Gojra in August 2009 that killed eight Christians.
The tribunal has recommended a review of the country’s blasphemy law.
Worldwide, Islamic nations have been on a tear to demand non-Muslims be punished for criticizing Islam. In 2012, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then Turkey’s prime minister and now president, demanded that a movie that “insults religions” and “prophets” is not protected by freedom of speech.
He insisted that international bodies pass laws making criticism of Islam a crime.
The Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported Erdogan made the comments before a large crowed in Bosnia.
He said he is the “prime minister of a nation, of [whom] most are Muslims and that has declared anti-Semitism a crime against humanity.
But the West hasn’t recognized Islamophobia as a crime against humanity – it has encouraged it.”
He provided the comments in response to the growing controversy surrounding the YouTube movie “Innocence of Muslims,” made by an Egyptian living in the United States.
Islamic nations for years have been pushing in the U.N. for a “Defamation of Religions” law that came out of an original plan by the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation for a “Defamation of Islam” law to crack down on criticism of the religion.
Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice said at the time it’s nothing “more than an effort to achieve special protections for Islam – a move to stifle religious speech.”
Critics of the idea say Muslim nations would simply use it as an endorsement of their attacks on Christians for statements as simple as their belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, which Muslims consider an affront.
In 2010, WND reported the Islamic-led Defamation of Religions proposal in the United Nations had been approved again. But its level of support had been declining.
According to the Human Rights First organization, the plan violated fundamental freedom of expression norms.
“[The] vote affirms that support for the defamation concept continues to dwindle. Nevertheless, we deeply regret that this text continues to distract governments from real issues that deserve greater attention , such as fighting the spread of religious violence and hatred, as well as how to counter practices of discrimination that many members of religious and other minorities face in all parts of the globe,” said Tad Stahnke of Human Rights First.
He said the vote is “unfortunate for both individuals at risk whose rights will surely be violated under the guise of prohibiting ‘defamation of religions,’ as well as for the standards of international norms on freedom of expression.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/blasphemy-crackdown-surges-across-europe/#GyKg0pdivGByEupZ.99My comments: Belief in the God of the Bible, is on its Face, a declaration of Blasphemy toward Islam and all other Religions.
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