Friday, November 2, 2012

A rap on Polish knuckles

The EU has made its unhappiness known to Poland, who are usually very good little Europeans, about a suggestion that a heavy metal group called Behemoth (great name) might prosecuted on the basis of article 196 of Poland's penal code on "the crime of offending religious sensibilities".

It seems that, as part of their performance in 2007, the group's lead singer ripped pages out of the Bible and called the Polish Catholic Church a "murderous cult". It is not clear from the story why it has taken this long for anyone even to threaten a court case but I do like the notion that prosecution for "blasphemy" is against those famous "European values". While I do not think rock musicians should be prosecuted for blasphemy I do wonder where these people get their knowledge of European values, which bear no relation to European history that saw many a prosecution, persecution and execution for blasphemy and other related crimes.

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