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Man Arrested In Greece For "Blasphemous" Facebook Page
An anonymous reader writes "A 27-year old man was arrested yesterday in Greece (Greek-language original) by the electronic crime police, for creating a Facebook page "Geron Pastitsios" which made fun of an extremely respected Orthodox Christian monk who lived in Mount Athos, as well as the Greek Church. The arrest came promptly after the Greek far-right party — which holds 7% of the parliament seats — submitted an official petition asking the government to take down the page. The charges that the young man faces are 'blasphemy' and 'disrespect to the religious beliefs of others.'" What would the UN say?
with all this freedom of speach.
Tracking down those vile criminals, one bit at a time.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
...to repeal the Greek blasphemy law is here.
I don't mind dating a girl that has been with everybody, as long as she had a good shower afterwards.
'blasphemy' is anachronism from middle ages. 'disrespect to the religious beliefs of others.' is exactly what he have done.
And it should be legal.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Politics is the same everywhere. I'm guessing it's an election year in Greece too. Politicians doing outlandish things they know will never hold up in any court is what we call "tuesday" across the pond. Conservatives over here have done things like pass laws forbidding global warming. Not research into it, or funding for it, but global warming itself. They've made being the Earth a crime. Elsewhere in America, there is a state now where, by law, every woman is pregnant. No, I'm not joking -- they legislated the definition of conception to be two weeks before sexual contact. No more virgins here, good sirs! Still no word on whether they're allowed to use the car pool lanes.
And those aren't even examples of religious non-sense, which makes the above examples look positively civil by comparison. *hugs* Greek citizens, we feel your pain too.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
The monks on Mount Athos have a quite a history of corruption and greed (see, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatopedi_monastery#Land_deal_controversy). I wonder if this blasphemy case is a retaliatory measure against a whistleblower?
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
By holding onto one set of beliefs, you implicitly disrespect all other sets of beliefs whether you want it or not.
Ezekiel 23:20
Did one of them finally pay taxes?
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
'disrespect to the religious beliefs of others.' is exactly what he have done.
People need to earn my respect. You don't automatically get it by virtue of your gender, you don't get it because of your age, you don't get it because you have nice hair, you don't get it because some morons voted for you... And you certainly don't get it just because you have the older fairy tale.
When you can rephrase a law that still amounts to an anachronism in a way that it doesn't refer to thoughtcrime, let me know.
We need to get over this BS of "religious tolerance". I "tolerate" anything that doesn't affect me. If your brand of delusions negatively affect me, then no, I will not tolerate that.
For this sort of behavior on the part of others claiming to be Christians. I don't want to be persecuted for speaking my mind and what I believe, and so I do not believe anyone should be arrested or harmed for speaking out or posting things online. There is a fine line to walk when things become violent (death threats) or obscene (pornographic), but in so far as possible we need to be open and free in dialog if we want to have civil and prosperous societies.
This is one of the few things that is still great about the US (where I live), though it is slipping day by day even here. But arresting someone for what they post? Or worse, in Islamic areas, killing people for what *others* post? I don't see how that sort of behavior can lead to anything good.
William George
Doesn't blasphemy require attacking actual deities or assorted holy objects/texts/persons, rather than mere religious functionaries, however pious?
If anything, isn't it (in the context of an ostensible monotheism, like eastern orthodoxy) verging on blasphemy to assert that satire against a mere man is blasphemous?
Obviously, religious functionaries have the same interest in conflating their own status with the priviliged status accorded to dieties, just as politicians generally do their best to conflate their own persons and administrations with lofty things like 'Nation' and 'The Office of the President'; but, in both cases, it is actually a vital part of the protection of the genuinely venerated things to mock and dissuade the assorted grifters who attempt to parasitize them. Not doing that swiftly turns your religion into a cult or your government into an autocracy...
The extreme right-wing party in question - let's call it what it is, neofascist - has been a much mocked tiny minority for the last thirty years or so in Greece. They ran magazines praising the values of Hitler's Germany, the old dodecatheon (I kid you not) of Zeus and Hera and kept to their own niche of society talking about ancient aliens that gifted the race with superweapons waiting for the day to come to rise again. But no more. When the economy took a dramatic downturn they turned their preaching toward populism instead. Gone are the mentions of the Gods from any speeches or articles now that they figured they can catch a lot more followers (and votes) by supporting the most fanatical aspects of the Orthodox Church instead. So this is what it's all about. An opportunity to appeal to the masses as defending Christianity when several of their higher ups weren't even Christians up to a few years ago, and a party openly supporting racism making a bid for political power any way they can get it. They could care less about the venerable monk.
As per usual, it's sloppy shorthand for "do not like".
As per usual, it's just someone calling a political party what it calls itself. They are talking about Golden Dawn. If you'd like to go into Wikipedia and change the political position of Golden Dawn to "do not like" from "Far-right" I think you will find that both liberal and conservative editors will tell you to take a hike.
My work here is dung.
-- Roman law maxim
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I am a Christian. I am not Orthodox, but I have enjoyed reading about their church and traditions online, and I have a lot of respect for them as compared to a lot of Protestantism.
But this is intolerable. Requiring anybody to respect anything is slavery and is an unChristian violation of liberties. The Bible says in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 15 that the church's judgment is to be enforced only within the church. Even St. Paul the Apostle expressly denied that he had any authority to judge those who are outside of the church.
This is wrong, immoral, and unChristian.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
I have a religious belief that free speech is sacred, and any restriction on that speech is disrespectful to my religion.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
'blasphemy' is anachronism from middle ages. 'disrespect to the religious beliefs of others.' is exactly what he have done.
And it should be legal.
It should be mandatory. All religions are crazy.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
And yet my first tought upon reading this was "so this is how the Greeks use the bailout we gave them."
Oh, well. At least we now know that all that whining about budget cuts was all lies, since they can fund an inquisition. Nobody expected that.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
this guy had this page for a long time. he was mocking a (dead now) religious figure (father Paisios) who is supposed to have prophesied a lot of thing about the future of Greece and how Greece will take back lands from Turkey etc. etc. This father Paisios is very famous among the right-wing-religious-low-education nutjobs in Greece. Also a big deal of those prophecies have been constructed by others after his death. Also he is known for "miracles" that he has made after his death ( saving people blabla )
.. and you know the rest.
The problem was not the site that his guy had in facebook making fun of paisios. What hurt the religious nutjobs in Greece was the fact that this 27 years old guy, recently ( august if i'm not mistaken ) fabricated a new miracle of Paisios ( a story of how the mother of a young boy who had an accident and was in critical condition, visited the tomb of Paisios and the next day the boy miraculously came out of his coma ). So he spread word of his own fabricated miracle to a couple of Greek religious blogs and from then it was very easy for the most part of the (right,religious) Greek blogosphere and news site to reproduce the news. Hell, even a newspaper had a whole front page cover story on the miracle. The miracle was also front page in the Greek neo-nazi party ( golden dawn ) website
link with screenshots of the story where he confessed his prank: http://vlahatasamis.blogspot.gr/2012/08/blog-post_1999.html
You can imagine now how the story ended. The guy came forward and said "gotcha, the miracle wasn't real, I just imagined it". So he actually trolled them and they bit hard. Of course that hurt a lot, and from that point it was only "logical" that those right-wing guys would ask for his arrest. The golden dawn party indeed brought the issue to the parliament
By holding onto one set of beliefs, you implicitly disrespect all other sets of beliefs whether you want it or not.
Untrue. I'm a Christian, but the year I was in Thailand I gained a LOT of respect for the Bhuddists. It depends on what beliefs you're talking about. I don't have to believe in reincarnation or karma to respect those who do.
However, when a belief is obviously brain-dead stupid, like electing someone who is exactly like Bush will have a different result than the clusterfuck that was his administration, I can't respect that. Stupid doesn't deserve respect.
Free Martian Whores!
In a democracy the majority should get their way - by definition.
No, the definition is that the state is ruled by the people. Demos = people, kratos = strength.
Whether it's by the people's needs, or by the people's representatives, or by universal suffrage (for everyone except those we don't want to be enfranchised) is not per definition.
I can fully support a system where you have to earn votes by passing classes and tests, and this would likely be a democracy more in line with what Cleisthenes, Aristotle and Plato wanted. Uneducated and ignorant voters is the downfall of democracy. You don't let a child climb a branch hanging over a cliff just because that's what he wants.
If your argument is that you should be free to offend something imaginary, then you'll lose the argument because the people you're arguing with don't believe it is imaginary. The key to the success of American religious tolerance is not that we believe religion is imaginary and therefor that various beliefs are harmless. The key to our religious tolerance is that we believe people have an inherent right to be wrong. We believe in conversion by choice, and that conversion by sword is not allowed.
If you expect to make the argument that because their god is imaginary Muslims shouldn't get upset at offenses, you're not arguing for religious tolerance; you're arguing that your religion is better than theirs.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.