Pirate's Cove

Think they’ll do the same for Christianity and Judaism?

Defaming Muhammad does not fall under purview of free speech, European court rules

The freedom of speech does not extend to include defaming the prophet of Islam, the European Court of Human rights ruled Thursday.

The Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled that insulting Islamic prophet Muhammad “goes beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate” and “could stir up prejudice and put at risk religious peace.”

The court’s decision comes after it rejected an Austrian woman’s claim that her previous conviction for calling Muhammad a pedophile, due to his marriage to a 6-year-old girl, violated her freedom of speech.

The ECHR ruled Austrian courts had “carefully balanced her right to freedom of expression with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.”

The woman, in her late 40s and identified only as E.S., claimed during two public seminars in 2009 that Muhammad’s marriage to a young girl was akin to “pedophilia.”

Muhammad married her when she was 6 and consummated the marriage when she was 9. Sure seems like pedophilia. For daring to speak this, the woman, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, was fine $547 plus court costs back in 2011, and the appeals have been going through courts since.

Now, you can say this is whataboutism, but, had she been saying negative things about Christianity or Judaism, especially the latter considering the rising anti-Jew sentiment in Europe, does anyone think that the court would have found her at fault in the first place, much less making it to the ECHR? Of course not. It would have been considered free speech. Instead, we are now treated to EU courts operating under Sharia Law when it comes to almost anything related to Islam. She was found guilty of essentially blasphemy.

I guess she should feel lucky that she’s not in a fully Sharia complaint country, otherwise should could have been put to death. Though, one thing not mentioned in the Fox/AP story was that she was also given a jail sentence. Robert Spencer notes what I have

Finally, would the European Court of Human Rights rule that someone deserved a fine and imprisonment for criticizing Jesus? The case wouldn’t even come to them.

This is an important step toward the imposition of Sharia in Europe, as it is a tacit acceptance of Sharia blasphemy restrictions on criticizing Muhammad.

Geller Report digs deeper into the story of Muhammad and his child bride. And Jihad Watch also notes that there are almost 2,000 child brides in the U.K., which is instituting much of Sharia Law, and most are of Muslim descent.