Slashdot Mirror
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?
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.
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!
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
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.
with all this freedom of speach.
Thankfully, we've cracked down on the freedom of snectarine.
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!
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
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.
Well lets see..we had politician from the POTUS on down talk about how "deplorable" the video was even though ironically it was based on the events in the Koran, then we have the state trying to see if they can revoke his parole because he used a PC to upload the video, oh and they DID broadcast his name and whereabouts all over the media, so that now he and his family is in hiding. Yeah...not seeing anybody in the USA government saying a damned thing about free speech anywhere.
Of course this is the problem with the lie that is political correctness, one has to bend the law, even warp reality, to follow the path of appeasement. Notice how the try to blame everything on a cheesy video that came out months ago, when all the rioting started on 9/11? Notice how they have a royal fit at someone pointing out what is written in their own book but do NOT have a problem with blatant anti-Jewish and Christian propaganda on their own networks, going so far as to make children's videos about how great jihad is?
This is the problem with political correctness and appeasement, it makes "special classes" that one can't say anything about, even when its the truth, and must bend over backwards for even when they show no courtesy or compassion for any view but their own. I'll end this with some quotes from their very own book, although I wouldn't be surprised if I was modded down and told what a racist I was for using their own words..
Quran 4:89: They (infidels) desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.
Quran 8:12: Instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers;
Quran 2:191: kill the disbelievers wherever we find them
Quran 22:19-22: for them (the unbelievers) garments of fire shall be cut and there shall be poured over their heads boiling water whereby whatever is in their bowels and skin shall be dissolved and they will be punished with hooked iron rods.
Quran 8:12: Your Lord inspired the angels with the message: I will terrorize the unbelievers. Therefore smite them on their necks and every joint and incapacitate them. Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.
Quran 8:7: Allah wished to confirm the truth by His words: Wipe the infidels out to the last.
Quran 8:59: The infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever arms and weaponry you can muster so that you may terrorize them. They are your enemy and Allah's enemy.
Yeah religion of peace my ass.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.