'Speech threat' of religious law

CONTROVERSIAL plans to make incitement to teligious hatred illegal are a threat to free speech, critics said yesterday. The new Racial and Religious Hatred Bill would give equal protection to all faiths. Jews and Sikhs are already covered by race hate laws. The new proposals cover words or behaviour intended or likely to stir up religious hatred. The Bill would create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred and would apply to comments made in public or in the media, as well as through written material. But the Government insists it will not prevent ban comedians, artists and perfermers from criticising or poking fun at different faiths. Home Office Minister Paul Goggins said he did not expect many prosecutions under the new law but it was important for Parliament to send out a clear message. He added: 'It is about protecting the believer, not the belief. This will be a line in the sand which indicates to people a line beyond which they cannot go. 'People of all backgrounds and faiths have a right to live free from hatred, racism and extremism.' Mr Goggins said police believed the new law could have 'prevented some of the riots in northern English towns in 2001. But Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said the proposed law would 'seriously undermine' free speech. My comment:-  I agree that such laws undermine free speech - what this is  - is a rouse by those of faith to maintain their ignorant and outdated and unsubstantiated views in a society that has progressed beyond them - people do not like such views because it is their beliefs which incite hatred and ignorance in the first place by not being rational -and when anyone attempts to criticize their views in a free and liberal society they get upset and plead "racial hatred" - what  it is - in my case - is a protection of knowledge and rationalism from the creeping insidious noxiousness of religious dogma - our society is slowly crumbling because of having to give way to political correctness and accepting "wrong" views - upon the absurd notion that everyone's opinion has validity - it is my contention that science is a much better way of knowing than any childish views of God and religion - and to this end - I would have anyone read "Science without bounds" which shows just that - it is time to do away with "belief" and accept what is real and what can be proven - our society will be driven back to the medieval dark ages if we accept religious nonsense and create laws that allow them to propagate their unsubstantiated views whilst quelling any free speech which speaks out against their ignorance - pretty soon it will be against the law for me to be even saying what I am saying here -I will be a "heretic" and be subject to whatever the law says - and if the muslims get their way - I will have my mouth clamped or my tongue cut out for saying "You could be wrong - try asking questions before accepting things on faith." Vandals wreck Jewish graves VANDALISM desecrated 100 graves in a Jewish cemetery as the Government unveilled new laws to combat religious hatred yesterday. Gravestones were smashed, broken, pushed over like dominoes and hurled on top of each other, causing an estimated £150,000 damage. Some of the plots at Rainsough Cemetery in Prestwich, Greater Manchester, were those of concentration camp survivors who came to Britain after the war. It is the third time in five years the graveyard has been targeted and Swastikas were daubed on tombstones in a previous attack. Jewish leaders were last night trying to contact relatives of the dead. Louis Rapaport, of the Jewish Representatives Council for Greater Manchester, said: "To do so much damage must have taken some time, it seems to have been a planned operation. You get attacks on cemeteries of different faiths as well but I don't think you get ones with so many graves damaged. It seems something more than a few casual louts' Police said they were treating the incident as a racist attack. Det Imp Simon Corner added:'This is despicable. Relatives will be distraught. Each damaged grave has a Hebrew inscription on it,' However, Mr Rapaport said he could not rule out the possibility that the attack was prompted by Israeli policies in the Middle East. 'Groups target the Jewish community for many reasons.' [Metro June 10, 2005] My Comment: Whilst destruction of property is regrettable - one has to wonder what it is about Jews that brings so much of a response - perhaps it is because they think they are God's chosen people - tend to be arrogant - tend to work in areas that end up making lots of money -buy up expensive property - work with gold and jewels - and create supreme jealousy - when their attitude to life is that there are Jews and "other people" who are not Jews - in other words - like many other religious faiths - they are the ones who take exception to other people who are unlike themselves - even marrying within their own community  -whilst this may make good sense - like other faiths - it creates a "clique" mentality of "us" and "them" and ultimately divides humanity into areas of belief and tradition that cannot get along together - that is why faith is destructive - it is divisive and maintains a group of people believing something even if it can be proven erroneous - thence - like a bunch of small children -they say "my way of life is better than yours" and end up fighting about their values - belief by faith is an obnoxious meme and undermines social integration - I would not advocate violence - but I do advocate being able to speak one's mind - and even in this - I do not think advocation of race hate is good - but hating ignorance induced by false beliefs is  -although this should not be enacted upon a person - but expressed in a free and liberal society by free speech - and laws should not be made which curb the liberty of the individual to speak his mind  - we are entering a Big Brother society and it is controlled by people who have little understanding of what they are dealing with - if they can advocate protecting religious dogma from being assailed by free thinkers - then we are truly doomed - if they wish only to protect individuals from violence and destruction of property - that is a different matter. I would say though that human beings sanctify death more than they do life - and the ridiculous idea of wailing over the dead should long have been done away with - we should celebrate the living whilst they are alive - rather than mourn their deaths - I of course have sympathy with the way Jews were treated in the Holocaust - and never wish to see that again - but they ought to take a look at why their own belief system created the urge to do that to an entire population - I do not say that anyone "deserves" such treatment - but when you see a running theme of hatred - you have to wonder what it is that is being hated -I think such issues should be looked at rationally and reasonably,rather than just emotionally knee-jerking with "it's outrageous what these people have done" - let's ask WHY they did it - and try and understand the motive - if someone latently threatened my way of life - I'd have something to say about it too - which is why I speak out against faith as a way of knowing.