Discrimination against atheists

This isn't the sort of "I'm not allowed to wear my cross over my clothes at work", or "I'm not allowed to refuse to perform certain types of civil partnerships in my job as a registrar" type discrimination. It is a the sort of discrimination compiled in a report by the Humanist and Ethical Union (HEU) about real discrimination in 2012 against people expressing non-religious ideas. The report is called "Freedom of Thought 2012: A Global Report on Discrimination Against Humanists" and featured the following examples from Facebook and Twitter:

• In Indonesia, Alexander Aan was jailed for two-and-a-half years for Facebook posts on atheism.
• In Tunisia, two young atheists, Jabeur Mejri and Ghazi Beji, were sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for Facebook postings that were judged blasphemous.In Turkey, pianist and atheist Fazil Say faces jail for "blasphemous" tweets.
• In Greece, Phillipos Loizos created a Facebook page that poked fun at Greeks' belief in miracles and is now charged with insulting religion.
• In Egypt, 17-year-old Gamal Abdou Massoud was sentenced to three years in jail, and Bishoy Kamel was imprisoned for six years, both for posting "blasphemous" cartoons on Facebook.
• The founder of Egypt's Facebook Atheists, Alber Saber (pictured), faces jail time (he will be sentenced on 12 December 2012).
• The report details more than a dozen people in ten countries who have been persecuted for blasphemy.

Fortunately, the situation in the UK is getting better, with the "Section 5" Free Speech campaign passing a major obstacle in getting passed in the House of Lords. The campaign and vote centred around the removal of the word "insulting" from the UK's "Public Order Act" and removes the legal power acted on behalf of those who feel "insulted". It stops prosecutions of those who criticise religion - among other things:

"The victory was almost unprecedented, because it was achieved in the face of outright opposition from both Conservative and Labour frontbenches, who whipped against the amendment (requiring their members to vote against). 

Number 10 admitted that it had not anticipated the defeat, which was a humiliation for the two main parties. To their credit, the Lib Dems, for whom this change is party policy, gave their complete support.

"The amendment was tabled by independent peer Lord Dear, himself a former chief police officer. He told peers that "The amendment would herald a very significant victory for freedom of expression". He listed a sample of the many distinguished individuals and organisations that had supported the amendment, including the current and previous Directors of Public Prosecutions, a former Lord Chancellor, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Liberty, Justice, the Peter Tatchell Human Rights Foundation, the Christian Institute and the National Secular Society."

From the National Secular Society website. 

Good news about the UK law change.

It's a shame about these countries who are so harsh on something as harmless as Facebook posts.

Facebook posts, seriously? Well it doesn't surprise me since Facebook is indeed a big social network. I hate all these discriminations against atheists, I also heard in my state recently that there was the billboard that said:

"Don't believe in God? Join the club."

I seriously don't get why the media is making such a big f**king deal about this (excuse my language), not to mention there has already been someone that ripped out the 'don't' and the information to contact the club.

I must admit I'm always surprised when I hear about those sorts of laws in the UK.

As for the jailings over facebook I guess that's to be expected. Why anyone in those countries would post anything like that without using anonymizing techniques is beyond me. You'd think that they would have some of the most web savvy people in the world considering the risks involved.

Unfortunately, I doubt those countries will change significantly in our lifetime. I'm hoping that soon through science we find out something that cannot be ignored by the religious such as life on other planets.

I must admit I'm always surprised when I hear about those sorts of laws in the UK.

As for the jailings over facebook I guess that's to be expected. Why anyone in those countries would post anything like that without using anonymizing techniques is beyond me. You'd think that they would have some of the most web savvy people in the world considering the risks involved.

Unfortunately, I doubt those countries will change significantly in our lifetime. I'm hoping that soon through science we find out something that cannot be ignored by the religious such as life on other planets.

junglist101

I think life on other planets would either make them A) make up more stupid logic or B) become even more crazy