Friday, August 05, 2005

RELIGIOUS VILIFICATION CLAIM DISMISSED

The Australian State of Victoria seems to be unique so far in having laws that forbid religious vilification. Britain however seems to be on the brink of following suit. In 2004 a prosecution of two Christian pastors under the Victorian law held that even quoting the Koran was vilification of Muslims! The idea of Islam as a self-condemning religion is certainly an interesting one but nonetheless seems an extraordinary basis for punishing non-Muslims. That case, however, is still to go to appeal. See here for a full discussion of it. In the meantime, another case under the same laws has been decided which gives some confidence that sanity has not entirely vanished from the legal system. A "Wiccan" had claimed that the teaching of Christianity vilified him. His case has just been summarily dismissed by the senior judge of the same tribunal that convicted the Christian pastors. Below is an excerpt from a media report of the latest case

"A senior Victorian judge has called for changes to the state's contentious religious vilification laws. Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal president Stuart Morris's comments came as he dismissed as preposterous a lawsuit launched by a convicted sex offender and self-proclaimed witch. Prisoner Robin Fletcher claimed the Salvation Army's Alpha Christianity course, offered in jails, discriminated against him on the ground of his Wiccan religion. Fletcher is serving a 10-year sentence for drugging, enslaving, sexually assaulting and prostituting two 15-year-old girls.

Justice Morris yesterday summarily dismissed Fletcher's claims against the Salvation Army, Corrections Victoria and course distributors CMC Australasia, saying they were "nowhere near the mark" of religious vilification. He called for the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act -- under which Fletcher filed his claim -- to be amended to limit people's right to launch a lawsuit. "I recommend that consideration be given to the amendment of the Act to require a person seeking to pursue a claim before the tribunal to obtain the leave of the tribunal before the proceeding is initiated," Mr Morris said. "The question as to whether leave should be given should be decided on the papers."


Source of the media report is here. The full text of the decision is here (PDF). There is a more extensive examination of the legal implications of the latest decision here



NEW YORK CIVIL LIBERTARIANS DOING THEIR BEST TO GET THE SUBWAY BOMBED

There is a new legal challenge to the city’s effort to prevent terrorist attacks. A group is now suing over searches of subway riders.The suit is being filed on behalf of four subway riders. Two of them had their bags searched in late July and two others who chose not to have the search. One of them thought that police would harass him because of the political materials he carried inside of his bag.

The suit is demanding that the random searches be stopped immediately. “Its our view that this search policy is illegal. It violates the constitutional right to privacy, that people don’t have the right to search people if they haven’t done anything to arouse suspicion,” said Donna Lieberman of the NYCLU.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed in Manhattan’s federal district court this morning and does not directly accuse the police of intentional discrimination in the two-weeks of searches. However, it does claim the searches violate the Constitution in two ways, the fourth amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures and the 14th amendments guarantee of equal protection under the law.

Source



A good comment: "We're terrorized by political correctness in U.S. In response to the recent terrorist bombings in London, New York Police Chief Ray Kelly has announced that security on the subway system will be increased to include the random searching of bags and backpacks. He bent over backwards to explain that there would be "no racial profiling,'' but rather, a numerical system like checking 1 out of 5 or 10 persons with such bags. If, heaven forbid, Manhattan was irradiated for the next 1,000 years, I'm sure it will be of comfort to the former residents that the terrorists who slipped through the security were young Arab males, but they were numbers 7 and 8 in the screening process and, thus, were not checked. This is as silly and dangerous as Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta's pronouncement after 9/11 that a young Arab male would garner no more suspicion from airport security than a 75-year-old grandma.When political correctness really does kill us, who will the liberals blame? George Bush, of course".

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