pleaseblock.us gets helpful inspiration from major defenders of free speech around the world. The Index on Censorship is "Britain’s leading organisation promoting freedom of expression" and it offers timely news about violations of free speech.  In recent months, the Index has been forced to report on its own shameful self-censorship.

When the Index published an interview with Jytte Klausen (who published the first scholarly account of the Danish cartoons crisis), the Index refused to print a single Muhammed cartoon with the interview. Ironically, this interview was about her publisher, Yale University Press, which refused to reprint any of the cartoons in the book.

You can read the Index Chief Executive explaining their cowardice here at the start of the interview.  There was some bravery on the Index Board: irate member Kenan Malik dissented from the no-print decision: "(W)here was the threat? Index certainly received none because no one knew that we were going to publish. Nor is there any reason to believe that there would have been danger had the cartoons not been pre-emptively censored." 

Wendy Kaminer has blogged on this shameful incident at the Index. Her point is our point: Self-censorship is just as morally bankrupt as censorship by government, and perhaps more dangerous in the long run. 

More news: Gary Hull has just published Muhammad: The "Banned" Images.

Geert Wilders is now on trial in Holland. He is accused of violating Articles 137(c) and (d) of the Dutch criminal code for group insult of Muslims, inciting hatred of and discrimination against Muslims due to their religion, and fomenting hatred of non-Western immigrants. The alleged offences include Mr Wilders’ film Fitna, which shows images of 9/11 and beheadings interspersed with verses from the Koran.

See Wilder’s opening statement in this trial.

Israel’s newspaper Haaretz is reporting that the supreme Mufti of Syria has declared that Islam must protect Jews. He is quoted as saying:

"If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic."

He also said that Islam was a religion of peace:

"If Mohammed had commanded us to kill people, I would have told him he was not a prophet."

This mufti, Ahamd Badruddin Hassoun, has long been proclaiming that Syria is a country of religious freedom. Read the US State Department‘s views on freedom in Syria.

The new law in Ireland finds a person guilty of blasphemy if “he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion.”

Easy no-bake recipe for blasphemy

a substantial number of believers in monotheistic Religion A
a substantial number of believers in monotheistic Religion B
one egg of proclaiming one’s belief on God

Carefully separate the egg of proclaiming one’s belief in God, discarding the white shapeless matter of "all people really worship the same god". Then take any random believer in religion A who likes the yolk of faith and blend well with the believers of religion B. Stand back while the spontaneous heat of insulted people rises and hardens into outrage. To double the recipe, simply mix the same blend of a believer in religion B with those of A.

Why this recipe is so easy: The statement "My God exists" is heard as "Your God doesn’t exist" by believers of a rival monotheistic religion.

Atheists didn’t invent blasphemy—Religion invented blasphemy, and continues to use it as a weapon to this day. The biggest blasphemers are religious people.

Oh, by the way, "No gods exist".

Ireland’s new blasphemy law went into effect with the New Year. The group Atheist Ireland promptly published 25 blasphemous statements. See reports at CNN and The Guardian.

The quotations are by Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Tom Lehrer, Randy Newman, James Kirkup, Monty Python, Rev Ian Paisley, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Frank Zappa, Salman Rushdie, Bjork, Amanda Donohoe, George Carlin, Paul Woodfull, Jerry Springer the Opera, Tim Minchin, Richard Dawkins, Pope Benedict XVI, Christopher Hitchens, PZ Myers, Ian O’Doherty, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Dermot Ahern.

Here is a sample, from Mark Twain (Letters from the Earth, 1909):

“Also it has another name – The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy — he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.”

The home of Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew the bomb-wearing Muhammad, was attacked on Friday.

Westergaard was not injured and police captured the intruder, an Islamic terrorist from Somalia.

On Friday the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution combating the so-called "defamation of religions."   The resolution, sponsored by the Organization of Islamic Conference, was adopted with 80 votes in favor, 61 votes in opposition, and 42 abstentions. 

You can read Derek Araujo on this latest development at CFI’s Free Thinking blog, and read CFI’s statement in opposition to the resolution here.

The herioc story of Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident who joined student-led protests in Beijing in 1989 and has spent several years in jail and detention during the decades since, now goes on trial yet again.

The Washington Post reports:

"The Chinese government has set Wednesday as the trial date for Liu Xiaobo, a dissident who has been in detention for more than a year for his role in writing Charter 08, a manifesto calling for political reform, human rights and an end to one-party rule." 

Read some expressions of outrage and support for Liu Xiaobo over this fresh abuse from Human Rights Watch and Reporters without Borders.

According to The Australian, "Legislation to be introduced next year will require internet service providers to implement a mandatory filter that will block all overseas and locally hosted internet content that has been refused classification by the Classification Board. There will be a 12-month implementation process before the filter is switched on."

Global media are reacting negatively, comparing Australia to China, although Australia would join several other European countries already restricting internet freedoms.The United Kingdom is once again pursuing more restrictive rules.

Other recent censorship news involving Australia from the Asian Correspondent:

"Australia was accused of censorship after it denied visas to North Korean artists invited to a rare international exhibition of their work, saying their studio is a propaganda tool of their country’s communist government."

"Indonesia has banned a movie that depicts its troops murdering five Australia-based newsmen to keep secret an attack on East Timor in 1975."

African witch hunter Helen Ukpabio, head of the Liberty Gospel Church in Nigeria and a frequent target of criticism by CFI, has filed a lawsuit in Nigerian federal court against Leo Igwe, CFI’s representative in Nigeria.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI), an international organization that fights for science and reason, launched an anti-superstition campaign in May 2009 to highlight and combat the abuse of alleged child witches throughout the African continent.  The IHEU posts the video of the attack on Igwe’s meeting by about two hundred members of Ukpabio’s Liberty Gospel Church.

See CFI’s press release about the dispute. You can read Leo Igwe’s statement and see the reactions to this case at the New Humanist and The Examiner.