Politics is always a dangerous matter to balance, especially in democracies. For this system has neither the freedom to ignore nor repress dissent without harming the very foundation of its inner mechanics. This leaves it open to bigotry and ignorance, as populists make use of the loophole to gain influence. And when such people take a hold of the religious tendencies it becomes a whole new force altogether, capable of taking whole countries, previously committed to human rights and civilisation, to degrade into the patterns of the Middle Ages.

TEXT: Christiaan Wohle
PHOTO: Daskar

Recently, the Hungarian people have adopted a new constitution of shame, championed by the ruling far-right and, as always on such occasions, the main Christian party. A testimony to their moral bancrupty, that greatly diminishes the power of the constitutional court, destroys the independence of the magistrature, restrains social rights while robbing many of social security and makes use of language nostalgic of Monarchy and Theocracy. It changes the name of, yes one can soon say this, the ‘former’ republic of Hungary, as it seems thereis some reason to use a more authoritarian denomination reminiscent of the times of religious cleansing. This new constitution furthermore opens de facto the door for the illigalisation of homosexuality and abortion, both issues important only to a certain kind of man...

But what else was there to expect? During Viktor Orban's short stay in power, he has already named his own followers to nearly all top positions in the country. He passed a law placing the media, both private and public, under the heels of a single organ whose members are nominated by his party Fidesz. And the role this institution is charged with? None other than making sure that no news organisation publishes either ‘subjective’  or ‘offensive’ material... I will leave those with education to ponder on where, on every occassion, the countries passing this line have tended to end up.

This of course is but the most recent of examples. For the threat of the religious is nothing new, be it nuclear armed mullahs or creationism taught in school. This lethal delusion has been underestimated in Europe as of late: and who can really blame us? Between the American nutjobs and Muslim suicide bombers, in this time of television and Internet, Europe almost seems like an island of peace. Yet whereas the U.S. have a marvelous constitution protecting freedom of expression and a even more wondrous ‘Wall of Seperation’ between church and state, many European countries still have blasphemy as a criminal offence! Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands (ah yes, look at articles 147 and 429bis everyone) and the UK amongst the most notable (event of note being the UK abolishing nearly all of it's blasphemy laws in 2008), many believe this state of affairs to be of minor consequence: for surely these laws aren't actually used anymore? Right? Wrong again!

Haderer was procecuted for blasphemy in Greece in 2003, Manfred van H. in Germany in 2006, Seppo Lehto in Finland in 2008 and I'm sure nobody has forgotten the Dutch Geert Wilders trials.  Religious meddling in where it does not belong is alive and well, and it somehow always manages to continually make it's stand in opposition to ideas and forces of civilisation: what greater poison is there to democracies?