Greek police arrested a 27-year-old Greek on charges of “malicious blasphemy and insutlting of religion” through Facebook. The arrest came “after thousands of e-complains from residents of different countries of the world”, so the police press release. The 27-year-old had created a page on Facebook named “Geron Pastitsios” (Elder Pastitsios), an mock name for Greek Athos monk, Elder Paisios (1924-1994), famous about his prophecies on Greece, the Greek nation and the Orthodox Christianity.
Pastitsio is a Greek dish with pasta, meanced meat and besamel saouce.
The arrest triggered an outcry on internet and thousands of people speak of unprecended censorship and blame Samaras’ government for complying with the demands of extreme-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn).
On twitter there has been talks that “Geron Pastitsios trolled Greek nationalist blogs, planting hoax accounts of ‘miracles’ which they reproduced without questioning”.
According to news portal NewsIt, last Tuesday (Sept 18), GD posed a question at the Parliament complaining about the Facebook page where the administrator insults, mocks and tries to humiliate the sacred figure of Greek Orthodoxy, Elder Paisios”.
However police sources told NewsIt that the police was investigating the issue before the GD’s question and that the charges were concluded on Sept 15.
O tempora, o mores (!)
Blasphemy is about the most ridiculous concept ever to be enshrined in law, and runs in complete contradiction to the rights of expression enshrined in the UN Human Rights legislation.
Not only that, the acceptance of “Blasphemy” as some sort of legal concept gave rise at one end of the scale to the Inquisition and similar crimes against humanity, while at the other end of the scale it gives every lunatic in the world official approval for their lunacy, and legal standing. The Austrian “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” or Pastafarians being a great recent example.
Those who defend blasphemy laws as laws protecting their religious freedom are not interested in religious freedom at all. They are only interested in religious repression, tailored to their requirements, and they should not be suffered by anybody, for anything. Whether they are the Pope, the Imam or Tom Cruise.
This does not take away the need for personal responsibility in what you say and do, and the consequences thereof. The worrying trend is the rise of those idiots, like the film maker, who believe that they have the right to offend on behalf of others. That is as wrong as insisting on tailor-made religious freedom.
It is hard to find a middle ground isn’t it? Sometimes people make freedom of speech into a sword to poke at people they have something against while at other times censorship takes away legitimate criticism. Why did the person make fun of this monk, just for making prophecies? Have any of his prophecies turned out true or are they for the more distant future?
@Jean, I would rather think the guy was poking fun at Golden Dawn for being the two-faced “Christians” they are.
GD are “Got und Fatherland” all over again.”Got” in their warped vision is not tall, blue and blond-eyed, but has pure Greek blood (whatever that is), speaks perfect Greek and can be recognized from miles away by his shiny, distinctively Greek Aura. All GD members have the ability to flawlessly recognize this divine being from a long distance. Well, nearly all, sometimes, maybe…
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite3_1_17/09/2012_461710
By feeding them the bullshit he did, and them eating it, he just showed them up for the bigots they are, and used one of their most powerful weapons against them, nationalist religion.
Freedom of speech should really be re-defined as freedom to debate. Most sane people would recognize the unspoken rule that a debate is just that, and not a shouting match or a mud-slinging contest. But then the ones who do abuse the freedom of speech concept can rarely be classed as “sane”, can they? So it probably wouldn’t make any difference.
I assume the satire was not addressing only the Gd but all those who were promoting the prophecies – whether real by Paisios or by their own imagination and attributed to him.
Most of the prophecies attributed to the Elder Paisios were additions or interpretations by religious fundamentalists, or nationalists. As for his actual predictions and those of other saints, Well…I’m amazed at the way they’re all coming about.
In this case its not about christianity or god. Its about Greek Neonazis. How come every time the extremists love god and religious parties its a question that will be answered when aliens arrive from outer space. Till then….Obay and Kill logic.
same old exploitation sheme: appeal to patriotic and religious feelings. you cannot fail…
Perhaps the Facebook page manager didn’t intend to be blasphemous and religiously hubristic but to teach some media outlets a lesson. That is, it’s about time to stop regurgitating stories originating from a single and often questionable source and jumping to conclusions. Fact checking, using multiple sources and employing critical thinking prior to publishing, often ensures the story’s veracity.
If only people would practice what they preach..
At a time when Muslims are protesting blasphame against prophet Mohammed in GREECE, which is a majority Christian country (at least for the time being, the Muslims are actively working on that throughout Europe with their immigration and birthrate), it is proper and right to show our Islamic ‘friends’ that we TOO honor our holy men, women, prophets, saints, Holy Mother of God (Panaghia) and Christ Himself, our God who came to us to lead us to the Kingdom of God! It is proper and right to HONOUR the blood of thousands upon thousands of not only early Christian martyrs, but recent Orthodox martyrs of Russia and Turkokratia–therefore we should not allow in Orthodox Christian countries for mocking and blasphame of anything holy about our Church, which our grandparents and great grandparents struggled to keep alive during Muslim Ottoman occupation and repression!
would you be so kind as to give some hard facts and proof about this, rather than simply repeating hear say and scare mongering?
This comment is a prime example of the total hypocrisy that underlies the concept of blasphemy. While you are denying the “others” the right to jump up and down about the perceived blasphemy for their belief system, you, at the same time, demand, actually insist on the right to be allowed to jump up and down to defend your belief system?
And that perceived right then somehow doesn’t have anything to do with the belief system anymore, but stems from some territorial fear about Greece. Muddled logic to say the least…
When ever did fighting fanaticism with fanaticism result in anything other than more fanaticism? Whatever happened to “Love thy Neighbour” and “Turn the other cheek”? Last time I looked that principle was not conditional upon who or what the aggressor was/is.
And of course, the whole blasphemy thing is also based on the unproven existence of the Divinity, whatever you want to call him/her, meaning that the blasphemy bit is in fact based on very shaky legal ground.
To make the absurdity of the hole thing very clear, you do realise that the Greek Orthodox Church, Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, and all the other religions are on the very same international legal standing as the Church of Scientology and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Yes, friend, keep on deluding yourself with the absurdity of your comment ‘flying spaghetti monster’…somehow, I have your epithet all around the internet whenever there is a Christian article…you really have an issue, don’t you?
Who said that we should not turn the other cheek and love? I love the person who drives after drinking but never the less, a good night in jail quickly brings them to maturity. This person was immature and simply needs maturity. His progeny suffered underground for their faith.Who is jumping up and down friend? I don’t see any Greek Orthodox Christians burning anything or rioting?!?
And as far as the Muslims taking over Europe, well, let’s see, many of their own Imams and spokespeople have openly said that they wish to restore the Caliphate. Perhaps you don’t know what that is, so please open up a history book one day. 🙂
The Islamic faith believes that infidels should be made believers in their faith. Throughout history, Islam has conquered by the sword. Today they wait patiently. Research has said that if the indigenous Europeans don’t start having larger families, in two generations, there will be more Muslims in Europe than Christians. They don’t need to lift a finger. What they want is being given to them on a silver platter. Your grandchildren in Europe may be once again be paying the dhimmi tax.
So have fun not believing in the God that created you, and just keep on living your life, and remember ‘there are no atheists in fox holes’. May God enlighten you to His love FOR YOU.
I do indeed have an issue, is called “The Universal Deceit of Organized Religion”.
Yes, you should indeed go and enlighten yourself. Ridiculous as it is, The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is indeed, a fully fledged, legally recognised church. And I use this fact to highlight how ridiculous the whole concept of organized religion (as opposed to freedom of spirituality} is. Obviously, if he plays his cards right, any nutter can (and many do) establish “a religion”, with all the rights and privileges going with it. Even if that means legally enforced “respect” for wearing a spaghetti strainer on his head and calling himself “Pastafarian”.
The Islamic faith believes that infidels should be made believers in their faith
So does every other faith. Hence the whole spectacle of holy wars, crusades, missionaries and all the other unsavoury activities in the name of “The Lord”, whoever “The Lord” happens to be in each case.
As for living a deluded life, reality is that none of the religious institutions anywhere in the world are what they say they are. These people are not into spreading hope, salvation, love, etc. They are into POWER and MONEY, nothing more, nothing less. Be they called Bhagwan or Pope. The Holy See (Vatican) even has its own, extremely dodgy, bank! So much for walking their talk and practicing poverty and abstinence. They talk, the “flock” walks. Self appointed power freaks is what they are. “Do as we say now, unquestioningly, and you may possibly, if we say so, have a good time after you die. But you will not, under any circumstances, have a good time here.” All organized religion is based on a system of fear, denial and punishment. The one thing we HAVE to do in life is die, anything else is optional. Religious organizations play on peoples fear of that inevitable death, and, conditionally upon people abiding by THEIR rules (= faith), they offer you the ultimate prize, eternal life (meaning, NO MORE FEAR OF DEATH). The simplest, biggest con going, with millions falling for it, going to war over it, and arguing the in-arguable.
Just like those who believe in the Divinity can’t prove it exists, neither can those not believing in it prove it doesn’t exist. But, unlike those who do believe, the unbelievers have yet to come up with those famous expressions of unconditional, universal brotherly love like the Inquisition, Jihad, Pogrom, Crusades, etc.
Finally, tell me something. Is your God going to shrivel and die because of somebody arguing the toss, or shouting obscenities at him/her? If yes, then it’s not much of a almighty, eternal God, is it?? If no, then what is all the fuss about, other than some power hungry freak with his/her nose out of joint?
Simply look at the images all over the world showing religious riots. What do you see?
Well healed, well fed elderly “gentlemen” (very rarely women, they have much more sense!) whipping up crowds of disenfranchised, disillusioned young men to fight a cause most of them haven’t got an iota’s notion of what it is all about.
Blatant abuse of peoples herd mentality, with the same level of intelligent thought behind it as a herd of cattle in a panic.
A few people have commented on this blog that “Islam is the scourge of the Earth”. They are wrong. Organized religion in all its forms and appearances is the scourge of the Earth, and directly responsible for an awful lot of the evil that has befallen the Earth and its peoples.
to be an atheist must not definitely mean that one rejects other people’s rights to believe.
No, it doesn’t, and I don’t. What it does do is forcefully reject some believer’s self-proclaimed right to impose their beliefs on others, especially though an unholy alliance of political and religious cooperation, which is what blasphemy laws are all about.
There is also a very big difference between a “believer” and somebody who uses and manipulates “believers” for their own purposes, which is in all cases nothing other but to acquiring ultimate personal power and wealth, at any cost. This abuse of power is expressed in things like leaders declaring themselves, or manipulation the system to have themselves declared, “infallible”. That must be, as far as the power hungry goes, the ultimate achievement. Guaranteed unquestioned, ultimate power of EVERYTHING. Really????