Submission from The Seventh-day Adventist
Church
1. I believe in the very minimum of legislation
with regard to religious affairs that is commensurate with public
order and public decency. God's good name does not depend on the
blasphemy legislation!
2. The threat from Islamic fundamentalism
and the issues raised in Ulster make legislation against incitement
to religious hatred tempting. However, I believe that this is
a temptation that should be resisted. Freedom of religion and
freedom of religious expression are basic. Incitement would be
hard to define and any definition imprecise enough to be open
to abuse. Passages in both the Koran and the Old Testament could
be said to amount to incitement. The situation in our pluralistic
society would be hindered not helped by the policing of what we
write and what we say for evidence of incitement.
8 July 2002
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