The law states that any material that "incites violence or hatred" is ignoring the responsibilities of liberty/free speech and therefore should be banned. Unless it is religious. Then, of course, it is exempt from that law.
Think about this.
On the one hand, an individual could produce a leaflet that incites violence or hatred; only a few hundred people may get to see it, most of whom will dismiss it out of hand. The law argues that if there is a risk of even just one person taking it seriously, even though there are minimal examples of this, it is worth banning that material and prosecuting the distributor. Fair enough. Better to be safe than sorry.
On the other hand, there is the Bible and the Quran, both of which incite violence and hatred; these publications are read by millions, if not billions, most of whom see them as the word of God and ritually follow the instructions day by day. There are countless examples of people killing, persecuting and oppressing because of these books and yet, these books are exempt from the law and the distributors are free from prosecution.
How insane is this?
The privileges that religion enjoys must end. We should campaign for either the re-editing of the Bible and the Quran to get rid of the violence and hatred (they would both become pamphlets!) or the outright ban of them. I know the results are unlikely but it would bring awareness to the disparity.
Roll on 2010.
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