Jussi Kristian Halla-aho is a blogger and politician in Finland.
On his blog, he had made comments about Islam that some found offensive (here’s the original posting):
Prophet Muhammad was a pedophile and islam revers pedophilia as a religion. Islam is a religion of pedophilia. Pedophilia is Allah’s will.
Are these statements illegal? They certainly insult muslim’s religious feelings. Let’s approach the issue logically:
As a 50 year-old man Muhammad was engaged to six or seven year old Aisha. Their marriage was “consummated” when Aisha was nine years old. It is possible to think that they were living in another age and Muhammad’s deeds must not be judged according to today’s standards, but as we have learned during the last few years, schoolbooks from the 50’s were racist when they spoke about ”negroes” (even if ”negro” was not a racist term at the time by anybody’s standards), it’s equally justified to call a child rapist who lived 1400 years ago a child rapist .´
What has to be done so that the bolded statements were not true? You must insist that
a) … Quran is not literally true (i.e Muhammad did not have sexual relations with a nine year old girl). This will not do, since according to Islamic doctrine and muslims’ opinion Quran is a literal word of Allah. Consummation and Aisha’s age cannot be denied without insulting muslims.
b) …Muhammad’s actions were not always acceptable. This will not do either, since according to muslims (and Tampere district court) criticizing Muhammad is the same as criticizing Allah and therefore blasphemy. The penalty is death. Muslim’s believe that Muhammad’s actions were the will of Allah. Because Muhammad had sexual relations with a child, that was Allah’s will as well.
As we see, all the argumentative ways to disprove the bolded statements have been theologically exhausted. The fact that Muhammad was a pedophile and Allah supported pedophilia can only be denied either by denying the literal truthfulness of Quran or Muhammad’s status as a messenger of Allah whose actions are according to the will of Allah.
Therefore I repeat my claim:
Prophet Muhammad was a pedophile and islam revers pedophilia as a religion. Islam is a religion of pedophilia. Pedophilia is Allah’s will.
This is not some random slur against Muslims. It’s an argument to be defended or refuted.
Still, Halla-aho was taken to court over this.
And he lost.
He now has to pay a fine of 330 euros.
It’s ridiculous. It’s been said before, but blasphemy is a victimless crime, and this “offense” is hardly blasphemy. It’s a critique of what the Quran says. To fine him for this sends a signal that criticism or analysis of religious works is off-limits. No books or people or fictional beings should be revered like that.
Halla-aho plans to appeal, but he’s got a long road ahead of him.
It’s always surprising to hear a European country taking such drastic measures. I almost expect it in America, but I thought Europeans were better than us when it came to matters of religion and free speech.
(Thanks to Riku for the link!)
