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The highest European Court of Human Rights in Europe said Friday that denigration of religious doctrines, such as insulting the Prophet Muhammad, was not protected by freedom of expression and could be prosecuted.
The European Court of Human Rights upheld the verdict handed down in 2011 by an Austrian court sentencing an unnamed woman to a fine for alleging that the figurehead of Islam had a tendency to pedophilia.
Under Austrian law, this woman had initially been sentenced for "pedophilia" to a marriage between the Prophet and six-year-old Aisha at a seminar organized in 2009 under the patronage of the right-wing populist Freedom Party. Information on Islam. "
She appealed the verdict to the Strasbourg-based ECHR, a supranational court that hears human rights appeals from citizens of 47 European countries, claiming that she wanted to contribute to a public debate .
The ECHR stated that it had rejected his appeal after finding that the Austrian courts "had carefully balanced his right to freedom of expression and the right of others to the protection of their religious feelings, and had served the legitimate aim of preserving religious peace in Austria ".
The verdict comes amid growing tensions in Europe over the role of Islam in Western societies. A rise in power of anti-Islamist groups fueled by an anti-immigration response is disrupting politics across the continent.
According to Islamic teaching, Aisha was one of Muhammad's wives. The ECHR cited the woman whose sentence she upheld, claiming that the Prophet "loved to do it with children". The court also quoted: "A 56 year old man and a six year old? … how do we call it, if it is not pedophilia?
Such statements went beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate and could constitute an "abusive attack on the prophet of Islam" likely to "breed prejudice and threaten religious peace", stated the ECHR.
A panel of seven judges from Germany, France, Ireland, Latvia, Azerbaijan and Georgia unanimously ruled on this case. The judges stated that the sentenced woman had not informed her audience of the historical context.
Accusing Muhammad of "primary sexual interest in the bodies of the children," the woman ignored that the marriage had lasted until the death of the Prophet, when Aisha had reached the age of 18, effectively considering that a marriage was not to not be motivated by pedophilia, said the Austrian court.
His comments "could only be understood as intended to demonstrate that Muhammad was not worthy of worship," said the court.
The woman will have to pay a fine of 480 € (612 $) and cover the costs of her trial.
The ECHR has always ruled on sensitive issues related to Islam, often defending measures contrary to Islamic practices. In 2014 and 20017, the court upheld the French and Belgian ban on burqa and other Islamic clothing that fully covered women's faces. In 2017, he also approved a decision by the Swiss authorities obliging Muslim schoolgirls to take compulsory swimming lessons.
Austria is part of several European countries that have blasphemy laws in their criminal codes. Austrian cartoonist Gerhard Haderer was sentenced to six months in prison by a Greek court in 2005 for describing Jesus smoking marijuana and surfing the Sea of Galilee.
A Russian court imprisoned in 2012 members of the artistic group Pussy Riot for violating the feelings of the faithful during a performance in an Orthodox Cathedral in Moscow.
Write to Bojan Pancevski to [email protected]
