Making a parody of confession and holy communion and putting online a "downloadable" holy host sign with the words "IHS, body of Jesus Christ" offends religious feelings, decided the court in Biała Podlaska. Court [...] sentenced a programmer, who authored the internet website On-line Confession to a fine of 2,000 PLN [520 euro] [...] the prosecutor wanted a year in prison, suspended for two years.
[...] "This website is not for fun. For the absolution to be granted, you need to fill in all the fields honestly and scrupulously" said [the author]. Then he included icons: "Connecting to God, please wait", "Sin transfer ongoing", "Absolution ongoing". At the end you could download a confession certificate. [...] "Make sure rice paper is in your printer, you may also use potato paper" recommended the programmer.
[...] Two people from Biała Podlaska informed the attorneys about the case. They decided that making fun at things they find the most holy offends their religious feelings. [...] Prosecutors initially declined to begin the proceedings, but then charged Radosław R. with offending religious feelings through insulting items of religious cult.
I used to write a weblog called Brother Anzelm's Comments. In the blog I pretended to be an old, uneducated catholic monk, insanely religious, holier than thou and the Pope together. The website attracted a lot of visitors, even reaching top 10 most read blogs on the portal I was using, blox.pl. However, I decided to suspend the blog, then I locked it with password -- because I was afraid something along the lines of the case described above could happen to me, too.
I can remember a few famous cases of "offenders of religious feelings" being prosecuted in the recent years. One of them organised a heavy-metal concert of the band Gorgoroth, which was filmed for DVD release. The cameramen decided their religious feelings were offended and sued the organiser, Tomasz D. of Metal Mind Productions. D. was convicted for organising an illegal concert. The lawsuit regarding offense of religious feelings is still going (two years after) and the DVD release was withheld until the sentence is announced.
Dorota Nieznalska, Polish artist, was convicted for her art installation "Passion". "Passion" consisted of "a metal cross of equal arm-lengths (Greek), of which one side shows a recurring shape of the object of a photograph showing the lower part of a male body - stomach, abdomen, loins and genitals - as well as a film showing a close-up of the face of a male exercising in a gym, which provides the background for the object which is suspended by a chain". (Source: Wikipedia translation of an article by Aneta Szylak, art critic.) Nieznalska "was sentenced to six months' limited freedom on the condition that she carried out unpaid, supervised community work 20 hours per month and was required to pay court costs."
Jerzy Urban, owner of the lefty newspaper "Nie", was sentenced in 2005 to a fine of 20,000 PLN (roughly 5,000 euro) for offending Pope John Paul II. Urban published an article, in which he referred to Pope as "old worship idol", "fading old man" and "Brezhnev of the Vatican". Despite the fact that even a specialist in church law declined to declare Urban's action was a crime, the court found him guilty. Urban is planning to turn towards the European Court of Human Rights.
So next time you decide to have a go on freedom of speech being limited in Afghanistan or about fundamentalist politicians ruling Iran, remember that all these people were sentenced legally, according to Polish law. Poland is a member of European Union and a close ally of the United States. It is also a country where it is illegal to criticise Pope, use shapes resembling crosses in art installations and create mock-up "Confession On-Line" websites. It is illegal even though Catholics are not forced to buy "Nie", go to museums where Nieznalska's works are displayed and/or visit "Confession On-Line". And don't get me started on the upcoming law which is about to make it illegal to produce t-shirts with marijuana leaf symbol.
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