ok fine…I have no problem with a western court fining a person who insulted a religious figure but what i find disturbing is that if such a decision was taken in Iran or for that matter in any muslim country, the whole western media would have insulted Islam for being too strict…what a hypocrisy…
Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined
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By Associated Press
January 10, 2005, 3:43 PM EST
VIENNA, Austria – An Austrian woman who shouted insulting remarks about Pope John Paul II outside Vienna’s main cathedral was fined $325 after a court convicted her Monday of disturbing the peace.
The 46-year-old Viennese woman, whose name was not released by authorities, repeatedly and loudly denounced the pope and other Roman Catholic leaders as “child molesters” while standing in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in 2003.
On Monday, a Vienna court convicted her of disturbing the peace and being a public nuisance. The popular square outside the downtown cathedral was packed with visitors when she stood on the steps with a megaphone to ridicule John Paul and accuse the church of trying to cover up the sexual abuse of children.
Although freedom of speech and expression are enshrined in the Austrian constitution, prosecutors charged the woman under statutes in place to preserve public order.
Overwhelmingly Catholic Austria was stung by a sex scandal last year involving the discovery of up to 40,000 lurid images, including child pornography, on computers at a seminary west of Vienna. The local bishop resigned over the affair, and a Vatican emissary ordered the seminary shut down.
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined....Hypocrisy!!!
[quote]
On Monday, a Vienna court convicted her of disturbing the peace and being a public nuisance. The popular square outside the downtown cathedral was packed with visitors when she stood on the steps with a megaphone
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doesnt look like she got booked for insulting the pope.
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined....Hypocrisy!!!
You can't go outside someones house and yell insults at them without the risk of being charged with disturbing the peace, is that a bad thing? Now if she was charged with death I think people would be up in arms.
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined....Hypocrisy!!!
I have a small comment, if a woman stood on the steps outside a Mosque in Pakistan or Iran (Muslim nations, like Austria is a Catholic nation) and shouted on a microphone insults saying that all Mullah's are illiterate and the Quran is filled with hate, what do you think will happen? Will it just be disturbing the peace or will this fall under insulting Islam or the Quran, punishable by death?
I think to keep the peace in a Catholic city, what they charged her with was fair and it kept a balance with the people.
Another thing, bad and good are everywhere, including in the Catholic Church because people are human. The same goes for any faith.
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined…Hypocrisy!!!
but dear minah, if a woman is punished for such reason in Pakistan/Iran, the whole western media would consider it atrocious and brutal but when they do it, they have thousand reasons/excuses to justify it. jiss kee lathiee uss kee bhansss…
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined....Hypocrisy!!!
Your missing the point Phoenix. If a man or woman was fined over beinga public nuisance or disturbing peace I don;t think anyone would make a big deal of it. Public nuisances are easily put up with back home. And the woman isn't being punished to start with. She is being fined.
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined....Hypocrisy!!!
and PD... she would be fined the same (more or less depending on the exchange rate of Euro) if she disturbed the peace in front of a Muslim Mosque or Hindu Temple.
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined…Hypocrisy!!!
Well I am not missing the point…as a matter of fact I think you guys are missing the point or may be some of you are really that naïve….First, in this thread I am hypothetically assuming that a woman was punished in a Muslim court for the exact same reason the Austrian woman was punished. In my opinion, the western media would have made a lot of fuss abt it…This whole thread is about western media’s hypocrisy…. This thread is not about the reaction of people back home.
Lets see, if a Muslim woman insults the Muslim religion/religious personality in Lahore/Tehran/Jeddah and then she is punished for “Public Nuisance” by a Muslim or a civil court, do you guys really think that the western media would have accepted this ruling? They would simply call Islamic society a close-minded society with no freedom where women/minorities are punished. They would consider “Public Nuisance Ruling” a drama by a Muslim court whose real intention was to punish the woman for insulting the religion or a religious personality.…Apply the exact same scenario of Austria in Tehran and imagine the western media’s reaction….in your opinion they would have appreciated the Tehran Court’s ruling of public nuisance…yeah right….
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined…Hypocrisy!!!
PD, the problem in your analogy is that in Muslim countries, even Men are not immune to punishment for doing such a sacrilegious act. And Media would not make a big deal if someone is appropriately punished for something like that. If by punishment you mean chopping the head off, then yes, the Western Media will make a big deal out of it (and for good reasons, because there’s no crime worthy of such a punishment), but if the women in a Muslim country is fined 5000 rupees for insulting prophet or Quran, no western media will shout and cry.
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined....Hypocrisy!!!
PD, there are court rulings everyday in the Muslim world that are brutal that get no press what-so-ever here in the U.S. What's with this paranoia of Western media?
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined…Hypocrisy!!!
Madhanee you have made some good comments….I see where are you coming from but here is a million dollar question. If a country is being run based on Islamic shiria, then don’t you think that others should accept/respect the rules of that shria/system? If your religion clearly states to chop the head/hand off for a certain crime, then prolly that is what you should expect to happen based on the laws of that particular country. Otherwise, how would you define the “appropriate punishment” for a certain crime which is acceptable everywhere? Who has given western judiciary the authority to declare itself the most appropriate judiciary system? I am not arguing which system is better . All I am saying is to accept the law of a particular country…
Re: Austrian Woman Who Insulted Pope Fined....Hypocrisy!!!
Do you honestly think that they used the 'disturbing peace' excuse to fine the lady for hurling insults at the pope???
I think anyone who fined a lady for shouting in front of a mosque would himself be fined for not having punished her for hurling insults to Islam/maulvis in the first place.
