Blasphemy law belongs in the trash

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Finland is one the few Western countries to still have blasphemy laws in the books. Bit of a debate rose up on the topic recently. More on that here.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/yle_survey_most_mps_want_to_keep_blasphemy_law_but_majority_of_finns_party_greens_favour_change/12010478

Obviously I had to give my two cents on the topic and as result I wrote an opinion piece that was published on the website of Ankkuri, one of our local papers on the 7th of July 2021. This is a translation of that piece, the original one is here:

https://www.pkank.fi/uutiset/mielipide-ensimmainen-pykala-kuuluu-roskakoriin-6.19.18135.dacdd6e3e6


Recently Yle asked members of parliament about their views on removing the law against "disrupting religious peace" (note: this is a literal translation, made by the writer). The law is considered problematic because among other things it bans blasphemy. In fact, the UN Human Rights Committee has told Finland to remove the law because it violates freedom of speech. The Yle poll showed that majority of MP's wanted to keep the law in place, however the formation of the question make the result questionable.

The question was about the law as a whole. The problem is the previously mentioned blasphemy ban is only included in the first paragraph of the law. The second paragraph meanwhile bans the disruption of religious events, like for example funerals. There is a massive a massive difference between the two: blasphemy as a crime is completely absurd: I mean, an all powerful god hardly needs protection from the nasty words of humans. On he other hand, religious freedom is one of the most basic human rights and organizing religious events is one of the most important ways to exercise that right.

As a result, "disrupting religious peace" is one of the weirdest crimes imaginable: at the same time you can found guilty of it for insulting a mythological being whose existence we can't be entirely sure of as well as for actively preventing people from practicing their religion. Am I the only one who doesn't think these two are comparable?

Ultimately, religious freedom is one of our most basic human rights and as a result it need to be protected. The second paragraph of this law serves that purpose as far as I'm concerned, it can stay in the books. The blasphemy ban of the first paragraph however, belongs in the trash bin of history. The sooner we get rid of it, the better.

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