Blasphemy Laws

Posted March 10, 2006
By B A Aryatilake
Buddhist Times
Dec/Jan 2006

Recently, Arch Bishop Oswald Gomis giving an interview to the TNL (YA TV Programme) expressed the opinion that one could think of criticising religion.(Obviously he had Christianity in mind). He added that one could also write it down in ones diary if one wishes. But shaking his finger left and right he said," you dare not publish it." He arrogates to himself the role of a think police. Ironically the Bishops concession to think,write and put it away,which he neatly acted out, presents an improvement in Catholic thinking. During the hey day of the Inquisition a mere thought of veering from "the path of God" would have been enough to engulf the dissenter in flames.

There are no Blasphemy Laws in Sri Lanka. This is due to the fact that Sri Lanka as a Buddhist country, and in the true spirit of that faith, was never afraid of criticism either from within or without. The spirit of the Kalama Sutta pervades our thinking. The prohibition and the importation of Rushdies Satanic Verses and Taslima Nasreens Lajja were done under customs laws. Taslimas book has been translated and published in Sinhala, which does not contravene customs laws.

The screening of Nikos Kazantakis the Last Temptation was banned in our country for no valid reason.Kazantakis was a Christian himself and had no intention of disparaging Christianity. He only used Gospels other than those canonized by the Catholic Church in the fourth century as the source of his version of Jesus Christ. Your version of Jesus depends on the selections you make from the Gospels.Kazantakis portrays Jesus as a family man with wife and children.Christians shudder at the thought of Jesus having had sex with a woman because he was always portrayed as a male virgin. Fathering a child by Jesus was enough to have Kazantakis film banned in Sri Lanka although this film throws a flood of light about the times Jesus is supposed to have lived and carried out his ministry. Messiahs and Sons of God were many during his time. But he alone found a niche in the "greatest story ever told" hundreds of years after his death due sheer historical circumstances. Jesus was not an innovator,said or did nothing new.

Politicians and Presidents rush to please minority groups and so secure their vote and their loyalty. The resulting blackening of information does not bother them. A newspaper is dependent on the advertising power of the business magnates and these in Sri Lanka are largely Christian. The public is dished out only positive information about Christianity leaving out its horrendous past. This is tantamount to brainwashing. The media are also prone to hide the real truth about Christianity through fear of embarrasssing their audience.

Editors and publishers would not pass through print anything critical of God. Jesus or their representative on earth, the Pope. Prophet Muhammad and his "Revealation" the Koran enjoy the same privilege. Though the list of Prohibited Book doesnt exist,its spirit continues.

Priests have always instilled fear in the minds of children and the weak minded. In that way they have assured their bread and butter and heaven on earth for themselves. They know more than anybody else does, that history and theology do not tally. Ii it the same Jesus who saya, "Love thy enemy", and at the same breath "But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me" (Luke 19:27) The Catholic Church represents undiluted religious fundamentalism and extremism. With God hovering above our heads and looking through every keyhole it cannot be anything else. Every Sunday, people are chastised in sermons in which they are told that they are sinners,worthless and cringing creatures without freedom. In view of the Archbishops remark there is a real danger that blasphemy laws would be introduced here. That would provide a bargaining chip to aspiring politicians. Former leaders of the UNP and SLFP now rendered innocuous by popular vote are people quite capable of letting the Kalama Sutta go down the drain. Those who value and are not afraid of critical thinking even in the sphere of religion have to be vigilant and should not allow the Church have its own way.