Category Archives: Politics

Repeal blasphemy laws: David Nash and Austin Dacey talk to Atheist Ireland

By Atheist Ireland | Published: February 3, 2012

This is the second in a series of occasional lectures hosted by Atheist Ireland and livestreamed on the Internet. Professor David Nash and Austin Dacey talk about blasphemy laws, at a discussion chaired by Michael Nugent.

Also posted in Blasphemy, Secularism, Video | Leave a comment

Two Irish Senators support Alexander Aan in Indonesian blasphemy case

By Atheist Ireland | Published: February 3, 2012

Following a briefing of politicians by Atheist Ireland on Tuesday, two Irish Senators have asked the Irish Government to support Alexander Aan, the indonesian civil servant who is facing blasphemy charges for writing on Facebook that God does not exist.

Speaking in the Seanad this Thursday, Senators Jillian van Turnhout and Ivana Bacik both asked Eamon Gilmore, who is Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, to take a strong line in support of Alexander.

Atheist Ireland thanks both Senators for their quick response to this case. We also thank Senator Ivana Bacik for her request in the Seanad on Wednesday for a full debate on the Irish blasphemy law and its national and international impact.

Senator Jillian van Turnhout:

I welcome the Tánaiste’s commitment to Internet freedom through his work as chair of the OSCE. It is on this note that I draw his attention to the recent arrest of a 31 year old Indonesian civil servant, whose name I will supply to the Tánaiste separately, for having questioned the existence of God on his Facebook profile page. He has been charged under Indonesian law prohibiting blasphemy and faces five years imprisonment if found guilty.

The reason I raise this case with the Tánaiste is that Indonesia is one of a number of Islamic states that has cited Irish blasphemy legislation in support and defence of its own. Irish blasphemy law was cited as an authority in support of Indonesia’s constitutional court decision to uphold its law prohibiting blasphemy in 2010.

While I fully support the repeal of this law, I do not believe the intention of the blasphemy legislation introduced by Mr. Dermot Ahern in 2009 was to infringe upon the rights to freedom of expression, religion, belief and conscience in Ireland. Nor do I think it is a desirable consequence that our law is being used to support such infringements, including against Christian religions in Islamic countries anywhere else in the world.

I consider this as much a foreign affairs concern as a domestic concern. I welcome that this law is up for review in the programme for Government.

Senator Ivana Bacik:

I would like to echo Senator van Turnhout in urging the Tánaiste to take a strong line in support of the Indonesian civil servant she mentioned. We need to examine our blasphemy law because it is clearly having a repressive effect in Indonesia, Pakistan and other countries. I know the matter will be reviewed as part of the constitutional convention, but I believe the law should be repealed. Perhaps progress can be made more quickly in this regard.

Here is the Seanad transcript of the above contributions and here is Senator Bacik’s request the previous day for a full debate on the Irish blasphemy law. Atheist Ireland asks everybody who reads this to contact your local politicians, your local Indonesian embassy, and the Indonesian Government to call for the immediate release of Alexander Aan.

Also posted in Blasphemy, Secularism | 4 Comments

Senator Ivana Bacik calls for debate on Irish blasphemy law

By Atheist Ireland | Published: February 2, 2012

Senator Ivana Bacik yesterday requested a Senate debate on the Irish blasphemy law and its international implications, following a briefing by Atheist Ireland of politicians in Leinster House the previous day. Senator Maurice Cummins responded that the Government can certainly look at this.

Here is Senator Bacik’s contribution on the Seanad Order of Business:

I call for a debate on blasphemy law. There was an excellent briefing yesterday from Professor David Nash of Oxford Brookes University, a leading expert on blasphemy, who spoke about the international impact of the passage of the 2009 Defamation Act in Ireland, particularly section 36, which created a new statutory offence of blasphemy. There was an excellent debate on it in this House, and many colleagues participated in it.

There is an issue as there was an adverse international impact, with certain countries adopting Irish arguments on blasphemy and using this to bolster prejudice against different religions, even Christian religions in Islamic countries. We have also seen that Ireland has gone against the EU norm in adopting a new statutory definition of blasphemy based on a definition of offence.

It is outdated and I am glad it is up for review in the programme for Government. We must move forward by having a debate in the House on how we can ensure incitement to religious hatred laws are strengthened in the Statute Book. We no longer need an offence of blasphemy.

Also posted in Blasphemy, Secularism | 1 Comment

Five Steps to Civil Rights in a Secular Ireland

By Michael Nugent | Published: January 17, 2012

These are five steps to civil rights in a secular Ireland. Atheist Ireland is lobbying to promote these proposals on an ongoing basis. We welcome any feedback before we send the final version of this list to all TDs and Senators.

Overview

Atheist Ireland wants a secular Irish State, where we each have the right to our religious or nonreligious philosophical beliefs, and where the State remains neutral on these beliefs. Religious States promote religion, atheist States promote atheism, and secular States promote neither. A secular state is the only way to protect equally the rights of religious and nonreligious people.

Also posted in Secularism | 11 Comments

80% support for total separation of church and state, says new report

By Michael Nugent | Published: December 12, 2011

Atheist Ireland welcomes the findings, from today’s report by We The Citizens, that more than eight in every ten Irish people want the church and state to be totally separate, and that 65% strongly agree that this should happen.

We also welcome that seven in every ten Irish people want religious education to focus on teaching students about different religions rather than promoting one set of religious beliefs, and that less than two in every ten disagree that this should happen.

It is a fundamental test of democracy that the Government stays strictly neutral on questions of religious and nonreligious philosophical beliefs, thus protecting equally the right of every citizen to freedom of conscience.

We The Citizens is calling for a national Citizens’ Assembly to give ordinary Irish people a structured direct say in our political decisions. You can read the full report on the We The Citizens website.

Also posted in News, Secularism | 3 Comments

Five questions on secular issues for the Irish Presidential candidates

By Michael Nugent | Published: October 27, 2011

Atheist Ireland has written to the seven Presidential candidates asking them five questions about secular issues that are relevant to the position of President, like we did with the political parties and candidates in the last General Election. We will publish the results when we receive them.

Mary Davis is the first candidate to respond. If you want to help us to establish the other six candidates’ positions on these issues, here are the questions that we have asked them and to the candidates’ postal addresses, email addresses and phone numbers.

Please contact them and remind them to respond to the questions as soon as possible, so that we can make an informed decision when we vote for our next President.

Also posted in News, Secularism | 1 Comment

Atheist Ireland report from OSCE human rights conference in Poland

By Jane Donnelly | Published: October 3, 2011

Every year in Warsaw, Poland the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organizes a two-week conference called the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM).

The HDIM is a forum where OSCE participating States together with Partners for Co-operation, civil society, OSCE institutions and field operations and other international organizations discuss the implementation of human dimension commitments that were adopted by consensus at prior OSCE Summits or Ministerial Meetings.

Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly attended the Conference on behalf of Atheist Ireland.

Working sessions are held on each day of the Conference, on subjects relevant to particular OSCE commitments. The particular session that we wanted to attend was on ‘Freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief ’ and this was on Tuesday 27th of September. We intended to take the opportunity to speak on behalf of Atheist Ireland at this meeting.

One of the vital points with regard to these meetings is that NGO’s have an opportunity to address the full conference. Delegations from the Irish Government and the Holy See attended the Conference, among many other OSCE members states.

Also posted in Meetings, News | Leave a comment

The price of Sky Pilots

By nozzferrahhtoo | Published: September 25, 2011

Guest post by Atheist Ireland member GT.
—————————————-
In a recent letter to the Irish Independent a correspondent noted that the Irish state’s new law term on the 3rd of October will commence with a roman catholic mass attended by representatives of the legal profession, judiciary, An Garda Siochana and the Defence Forces.

Why the Irish state should pay judges, policemen and soldiers to attend catholic mass in this day and age is beyond me. But I was not surprised when I recalled the religious worship forced onto me and colleagues in a previous occupation…that being a member of the Defence Forces.
Read More »

Also posted in Catholicism, Secularism | 3 Comments

Teaching about Religions and Beliefs

By Grania | Published: June 22, 2011

by Jane Donnelly

The Mater Dei Institute is at it again.

Link to the pdf of their Submission to the Forum on Education

In their Submission to the Forum on Education they again recommend the Toledo Guiding Principles but state that this education cannot be adequately described by the use of the terms such as “objective”.

These people even quote from the Toledo Guiding Principles but conveniently leave out Page 68 – State neutrality and opt out rights.

“Under International Standards, states have considerable latitude with respect to providing religious education but may not seek to indoctrinate pupils in a particular worldview through the educational system against the wishes of the pupils’ parents. The European Court of human Rights has made clear that:-

The State, in fulfilling the functions assumed by it in regard to education and teaching, must take care that information or knowledge included in the curriculum is conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner. The state is forbidden to pursue an aim of indoctrination that might not be considered as not respecting parents’ religious and philosophical convictions. This is the limit that must not be exceeded.

The State may satisfy this duty of neutrality either by designing a curriculum that is itself sufficiently impartial and balanced or, in those instances in which the state provides instruction in a particular religion or belief, by granting rights to opt out on the ground of conscientious objection. This right must be realizable in practice, and not a mere theoretical possibility. Moreover, the requisite neutrality would be compromised if pupils were subjected to any disadvantage discrimination or stigma on account of the exercise of this right to be exempted from such classes, or elements of classes.”

What do they not understand about the words ‘objective’ and this is the limit that must not be exceeded. This is something that we must be very careful about as Atheist Ireland supports the Toledo Guiding Principles. We need to ensure that if the Toledo Guiding Principles are introduced it is not the Toledo Guiding Principles according to the Mater Dei Institute which is a foundation of the Archdiocese of Dublin.

Also posted in Education | Tagged Education | 2 Comments

Parents talk about the obstacles in obtaining a secular education for their child in Ireland

By Grania | Published: May 9, 2011

Alex Meehan of the Sunday Business Post interviewed some parents recently who have persevered in trying to get a secular education for their children. Although parents have the right to ask for their children to be exempted from religious classes at school in Ireland, those who opt for this meet with varying degrees of accommodation from schools and communities alike. Some are indifferent, others very accommodating, and a few even hostile.

One father, whose young child has been shunned by his local community, had this to say:

“People seem to think that I was motivated by wanting to cause trouble, but they have no idea of the lengths I went to to try to solve the problem before going public with it. They don’t know the full story, and they don’t seem to want to find out. It’s very strange that over a difference in opinion, a child gets punished. I’m very surprised by that. I thought we could all just agree to differ and move on, but apparently not.”

Read the whole article here.

Parents interested in finding out more about this issue and their rights can do so by emailing us here, joining our forums or finding us on Facebook.

Also posted in Education, Secularism | 2 Comments