Tag: Free Speech

The Church of Scientology‘s concerns about protesters outside their Gilman Hot Springs base led Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone to seek and gain approval Tuesday for county restrictions on picketing in residential neighborhoods.

Only Supervisor Bob Buster voted against the ordinance, which forbids demonstrators from coming within 300 feet of a home they are targeting in unincorporated Riverside County.

Buster said a 300-foot buffer would effectively quash demonstrations outside residences. He said the ordinance threatens free-speech rights.

Islam is incompatible with free speech (and a host of other values observed by civilized nations).

In an unprecedented case, a Jordanian court is prosecuting 12 Europeans in an extraterritorial attempt to silence the debate on radical Islam.

The prosecutor general in Amman charged the 12 with blasphemy, demeaning Islam and Muslim feelings, and slandering and insulting the prophet Muhammad in violation of the Jordanian Penal Code. The charges are especially unusual because the alleged violations were not committed on Jordanian soil.

The boy, 16, was stopped by police in Biggera Waters after he was spotted wearing a t-shirt which claims “Jesus is a (expletive deleted)” and depicts a nun masturbating.

It is a t-shirt for English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth.

Two judges ruled it was reasonable to conclude that the play “in context” could not be considered as blasphemous.

Theatres across Britain have united in defiance against a threat of prosecution from an evangelical Christian group to save the national tour of the controversial musical Jerry Springer the Opera. Christian Voice, which organised street vigils on the evening of the BBC broadcast of the opera in January, successfully petitioned to have Arts Council funding of the regional tour axed after damning the show as “blasphemous”. It sent letters to theatres up and down the country which said: “We are at this moment preparing charges of the criminal offence of blasphemy for service upon those responsible for broadcasting the show

Security has been stepped up at the London theatre staging Jerry Springer: the Opera as the controversy over the BBC’s decision to broadcast the production intensified yesterday. The move came as Christian Voice, a lobby group that spearheaded a wave of protests against the corporation, announced plans to launch a blasphemy action against the BBC and the West End’s Cambridge Theatre. Christian groups protest outside BBC Broadcasting House at the decision to air the controversial opera The opera, shown on BBC2 on Saturday night, has as its subject the confrontational American chat show and includes strong language and scenes depicting