"Protect Our Freedom To Harass!" *Facepalm*

The blogger at "Atheist Revolution" recently discovered the case of Harry Taylor who was arrested for consistently leaving insulting cartoons in an airport prayer room. This is what his reaction was:

According to the BBC News, a 59 year-old "militant atheist" received a six-month suspended sentence for leaving posters of religious figures in sexual poses in a prayer room at Liverpool John Lennon Airport. He left these images on three different occasions in 2008, causing great distress in the airport chaplain (Yeah, I'm not sure why an airport would have a chaplain either).

What I find most significant about this case, aside from the fact that it occurred in the UK are the following:

* The man was found guilty by a jury of his peers "of causing religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress."
* The posters were cartoon drawings, the content of which, as described in the BBC report, sounds almost exactly like the sorts of images I've seen on atheist t-shirts for sale at countless websites. In fact, I'm reasonably sure that the drawing above was one of them.

Yes, airports have chaplains. One reason for this is, naturally, so they can cater for people using the prayer room. There are other reasons related to comforting the bereaved when bodies are sent back from war zones or helping out when large numbers of passengers are going on pilgrimage. Could the airport manage without the chaplaincy there? Yeah, I suspect so. But that doesn't mean we should be shocked to see it there in the first place.

So one of the significant things about the case was that the guy was harassing people. Indeed, very significant.
The other significant thing is that these images are sometimes found on t-shirts. All very well, some people have obscene t-shirts, but this guy wasn't simply wearing the images on his t-shirt. He was leaving them in a prayer room with the intention to intimidate and harass.


Evidently, posting cartoons that someone in Liverpool considers "religiously offensive" in public can earn one a six-month prison sentence (suspended for two years), 100 hours of community service, and a small fine. And to think that I've always wanted to visit that part of the UK!

The issue here is whether it counts as "in public". Of course, the detail he was missing was that Harry Taylor is a repeat offender and in the past he has left things in Churches, which are much more obviously not public. Now mentioning this case isn't so surprising. The case made quite a stir when the news broke a while back and there's a rather apt response from Paul Sims if you click here.

Certainly my problem here is not the opening post, so much as the comments underneath. They seem to find it impossible to understand that there's difference between "freedom to speak" and "freedom to harass":

"No matter what you say or do, you are bound to offend someone - no one has a sense of humor anymore. To start determining what is offensive to whom is complete waste of time.Just the idea of an airport cahplain or a private prayer room is extremely offensive to me, BTW."

When I pointed out that in the UK the Westboro Baptist Church wouldn't be allowed groups to picket funerals I was told that they like having their funerals picketed:

"The problem is that once you start letting the authorities decide what is free speech and what isn't you've got some serious problems.

"I'd rather have the Westboro kooks have their say. Then we at least know who the crazies are."

"Yelling about fags at funerals is religious expression - that's how they see it. "

"I want the Westboro crazies to be able to picket funerals without being arrested.... Why? Because I know that American atheists would be the first group to be silenced in the absence of legal protections. "

I'll tell you why we'd ban the Westboro Baptist Church from picketing funerals. Because every time they did it, the police would have to be present to stop retaliation. The number of police required would have to be large because its not a matter of worrying about a few crazies. The protest itself is specifically aimed to provoke. We aren't about to spend a huge amount of money so that the police can protect their right to harass and offend. In short: harassment isn't protected in the UK.

So why are people desperate to protect the right to harass in the US? What am I missing?



Also the fact that the prayer room is open for use by people of all faiths and none confuses them:

"If airports have chapels, I demand atheists get their own room where they can watch Dawkins on youtube and drink cocktails."

It's like talking to children who get upset that there's a mother's day and a father's day, but no children's day.... Nearly every room is a watch Dawkins on youtube and drink cocktails room! :p

Cross posted to atheist_snark