Thursday, December 30, 2010

Legal protection for sacred books

I guess it's good to see that Great Britain is loonier than America in at least one respect, since they seem to be prosecuting people who defame "holy" texts. The charge is inciting religious hatred, but when even cartoons are enough to upset the religious, where do you draw the line? Do people really have a right not to get their feelings hurt?

Anyway, I thought this was kind of funny. It's a request sent to the Home Office for legal protection... well, see for yourself:
Dear Sirs,

I understand from the news (see here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/25/girl-arrested-allegedly-burning-quran and here: http://www.iengage.org.uk/component/content/article/1-news/1028-six-edl-supporters-arrested-after-burning-the-quran ) that the British state has decided to grant to at least some religious books/sacred texts the protection of the law, and to prosecute their burning/defacement/disrespect.

I am therefore writing to you today to request that legal protection be accorded to all copies of the three editions of J.D. Jackson’s “Classical Electrodynamics” ...

I must say, he makes some very good points.

(My thanks to Pharyngula for the link.)

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