Three Arrests in Plot to Attack "Blasphemous" Newspaper

Several media outlets, including the Winnipeg Free Press, are reporting that police in Norway have arrested three men on suspicion they were planning to attack the offices of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper responsible for printing the famous Muhammed cartoons.

American Muslim Magazine on Blasphemy and Free Speech

The Volokh Conspiracy has this post about a statement signed by several prominent American and Canadian Muslims about recent blasphemy controversies and the importance of freedom of speech.

Danish Mohammad Cartoons to Be Reprinted in Book

CNN is reporting that the globally controversial Danish Mohammad cartoons will be included in a new book by Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the newspaper (Jyllands-Posten) that originally printed them. The book is to be titled "The Tyranny of Silence" and will published on September 30.

British Men Arrested for Burning Koran

Several news reports, including this one from the BBC, have reported the arrest in England of six men for burning copies of the Koran and then posting a video of the incident to YouTube. Interesting, the reports all state the men have been charged with inciting racial hatred instead of the country's new offense of inciting religious hatred (a recently created offense designed to replace the now-abolished common law offense of blasphemous libel).

International Blasphemy Rights Day and the AAI/HC North American Convention

September 30 is International Blasphemy Rights Day, and a special event is being held (sponsored by the Center for Free Inquiry) in Montreal that evening to kick off the Atheist Alliance International/Humanist Canada North American Convention, Atheists Without Borders. I'll be speaking briefly at that event, and then delivering a workshop the next day (Friday, October 1) on The Curious Persistence of Blasphemy Laws and Their Modern-Day Counterparts.

"The Satanic Verses"

Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (1988).

The Satanic Verses is probably the most famous "blasphemous" book of the latter-half of the Twentieth Century. The controversy over the novel made its author, Salman Rushdie, famous well beyond the literary world. The novel is very much in the "magical realism" vein, as divine/supernatural phenomena and quirky coincidences occur frequently, sometimes noticed and remarked upon by everyday people and sometimes not. At its core the story is about two men born in India, one who takes on the characteristics of the Archangel Gabriel and the other the characteristics of Satan. Themes include the effects of colonization (specifically, England on India) both in terms of society and in terms of the inner psyche of the colonized.

Although most of the book is set in the modern age, the chapters that created such a furor are set during the lifetime of Muhammed. The founder of Islam is given the name "Mahound" in the book, which is a contemptuous name deriving from Medieval Christian literature. The "Satanic Verses" of the title refers to a real-world historical controversy (one apparently rarely given credibility among theologians today): did Muhammed once proclaim that there were more Gods than Allah in order to derive temporary worldly benefits, and then recant once his power base was more secure? The "Satanic Verses", in other words, are verses from the Koran that can be viewed as having a pagan influence. In Rushdie's story, Mahound recites the verses after a spiritual revelation from a being whom he thinks is Gabriel; but after Mahound changes his mind, he says that the supposed divine revelations were a trick sent by the devil. The implication here and elsewhere, then, is that Mahound is simply stating as "divine revelation" whatever happens to be convenient at the time. In one passage, for example, Mahound's scribe (responsible for writing down Mahound's words in what would become the Koran) changes the words and even writes down the opposite out of spite, and Mahound doesn't even notice. The story can thus be read to call into question the entire validity of the Koran.

I lack the training to comment on the book's literary, historical, or theological merits. Purely as a novel, I found it moderately interesting but not exceptional. If nothing else, The Satanic Verses is a testament to the fact that, even in the age of television and computers, literature can still shake the world.

"Obscenity, Blasphemy, Sedition: 100 Years of Censorship in Australia"

Peter Coleman, Obscenity, Blasphemy, Sedition: 100 Years of Censorship in Australia, (rev. ed.) (Brisbane: Angus & Robertson, 1974).

Coleman's book, though written decades ago, is still one of the best sources for information on the early history of blasphemy in Australia. Chapter Four, "The Blasphemers", discusses a handful of prosecutions starting as early as 1871 and as recently as 1919.

The 1871 case involved the prosecution of a street preacher named Lorando Jones for giving a talk in a public park in which he denied the divinity of Christ and the divine inspiration of the Bible. Although Jones was convicted and spent some weeks in jail, Coleman states that "the case made the idea of prosecuting people for blasphemy so unpopular that it was largely responsible for finally killing the idea of blasphemy as a crime." (p. 65)

After a few pages devoted to the government campaign to suppress a freethinker magazine named Liberator (using laws other blasphemy, such as Sunday laws), the chapter goes on to discuss the Australian Post-Master General's vendetta against an Italian newspaper ("L'Asino") for publishing caricatures of God and a joint prosecution by the Post Office and the police in the State of Victoria against a Communist newspaper ("Ross's Magazine") for publishing a satire of what would happen if Bolsheviks took over Heaven. According to Coleman, this latter prosecution "is the last in which a Government instrumentality has taken action against a publication for its blasphemy." (p. 74)

I can't independently verify that statement, but no other cases have come to my attention either. Given the dearth of research on blasphemy laws in Australian history, Coleman's book is still worth tracking down.

* Note: This post is about the 1974 revised edition of the original 1963 book. I've seen some indications online that another edition was released in 2000 with slightly different subtitle.