Blasphemy and Defamation of Religions

2021 ◽  
pp. 114-153
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hatzis
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Western World ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Offensive Speech

Blasphemy laws, the paradigmatic example of prohibitions of religiously offensive speech, remain common in many contemporary liberal legal systems. The chapter begins by tracing how blasphemy evolved over time in two important respects. First, while the blasphemy offence was initially triggered by the mere denial of the truth of Christianity, it later came to depend on the manner of expression, and only insulting or intemperate communications fell within its scope. Secondly, modern blasphemy laws in the Western world have expanded to protect not only the dominant religion but all religious beliefs, and, in some cases, deeply held secular beliefs. These newer versions of blasphemy are often referred to as ‘defamation of religion’ or ‘disparagement of religion’ laws. I discuss two types of objections to them: that they are vague and impossible to enforce in a non-discriminatory manner; and that they are as such incompatible with a free speech principle. The final part of the chapter explores the argument that religious offence bans are necessary for the protection of public order because if insults are not censored believers will become indignant and resort to violence. I argue that while the protection of order and peace is a legitimate governmental interest, the morally appropriate way to pursue it is to arrest those who threaten others with violence, not silence the non-violent speakers who offend the feelings of the listeners.

Discrimination and Toleration

2021 ◽  
pp. 154-180
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hatzis
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
The Government ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Offensive Speech

The chapter discusses, and rejects, two further arguments for the prohibition of religious insults targeting minority religious beliefs. The first is that they perpetuate negative perceptions of minority groups so over time it becomes acceptable to treat their members in a discriminatory manner. I explore what exactly is meant by the claim that speech leads to discriminatory acts and what causal link between expression and discrimination ought to be required for the government to suppress religiously offensive speech. The second argument is that offending religious beliefs is a form of intolerance towards those who hold them, so when the government is restricting communications which offend, it gives effect to the value of toleration. My discussion focuses on the kind of moral obligations which flow from toleration. I defend the view that a commitment to toleration should always leave some room for the expression of a negative attitude towards that which is being tolerated and that, in principle, speech is the appropriate means for conveying such an attitude.

scholarly journals A246 THE GLOBAL INCIDENCE OF ACUTE PANCREATITIS IS INCREASING OVER TIME: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 304-306
Author(s):  
J Iannuzzi ◽  
J H Leong ◽  
J Quan ◽  
J A King ◽  
J W Windsor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acute Pancreatitis ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Western World ◽  
Common Disease ◽  
Biliary Disease ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Annual Percent Change ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Background Acute pancreatitis is a common disease with significant associated morbidity and mortality. Historically, acute pancreatitis has been considered a disease with multiple etiologies and risk factors but is driven by alcohol and biliary disease. Multiple studies have shown that the incidence of acute pancreatitis is increasing globally among both adults and children. Aims The purpose of this study was to assess temporal trends in incidence of acute pancreatitis globally. Methods We performed a systematic literature search to identify population-based studies reporting the annual incidence of acute pancreatitis. Abstracts were independently assessed in duplicate to identify applicable papers for full-text review and data extraction. Joinpoint temporal trend analyses were performed to calculate the average annual percent change (AAPC) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The AAPCs were pooled in a meta-analysis to capture the overall and regional trends in acute pancreatitis incidence over time. Temporal data were summarized in a static map and an interactive, web-based map to illustrate global differences. Results Forty-five studies reported the temporal incidence of acute pancreatitis (static map provided, online interactive map: https://kaplan-acute-pancreatitis-ucalgary.hub.arcgis.com/). The incidence of acute pancreatitis has increased from 1961 to 2016 (AAPC = 2.89%; 95% CI: 2.26, 3.52; n=41). Increasing incidence was observed in North America (AAPC = 2.71%; 95% CI: 1.93, 3.50; n=10) and Europe (AAPC = 2.79%; 95% CI: 1.95, 3.63; n=24). The incidence of acute pancreatitis was stable in Asia (AAPC = −0.28%; 95% CI: −5.03, 4.47; n=2). Conclusions This meta-analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the global incidence of acute pancreatitis over the last five decades and demonstrates a steadily rising incidence over time in most countries of the Western world. More studies are needed to better define the changing incidence of acute pancreatitis in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Funding Agencies None

scholarly journals Visualizing Belief in Meritocracy, 1930–2010

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311881180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan J. B. Mijs
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Western World ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Popular Belief ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Over Time

In this figure I describe the long trend in popular belief in meritocracy across the Western world between 1930 and 2010. Studying trends in attitudes is limited by the paucity of survey data that can be compared across countries and over time. Here, I show how to complement survey waves with cohort-level data. Repeated surveys draw on a representative sample of the population to describe the typical beliefs held by citizens in a given country and period. Leveraging the fact that citizens surveyed in a given year were born in different time-periods allows for a comparison of beliefs across birth cohorts. The latter overlaps with the former, but considerably extends the time period covered by the data. Taken together, the two measures give a “triangulated” longitudinal record of popular belief in meritocracy. I find that in most countries, popular belief in meritocracy is (much) stronger for more recent periods and cohorts.

Competitive framing, emotion and heterogeneity: framing effects on Twitter in the case of an alt-right rally

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Porismita Borah
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Framing Effects ◽  
Emotional Reaction ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Concepts

PurposeThe current study has three main purposes: (1) replicate results from prior framing effects studies on social media. To do so, the study examines the influence of news frames (free speech vs. public order) on participants' attitudes toward an alt-right rally (2) expand prior research by examining the emotional reaction of participants to these frames and (3) probe the moderating effects of face-to-face heterogenous talk and heterogenous social media feeds.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from theoretical concepts such as competitive framing, emotions and heterogeneity, the study uses a randomized online experiment. The study examines a conversation in a Twitter thread that includes both free speech and public order frames in the comments to the thread. The total number of participants was 275.FindingsThe results show that free speech versus public order frame did not impact attitudes of the participants toward the alt-right rally. Findings also show the significant main effects of free speech and public order frames and the interaction of exposure to heterogeneity on emotional reactions of outrage and anger toward the alt-right rally. These findings suggest that framing research needs to take social media features into consideration for a complete picture of framing effects on social media.Originality/valueUsing a classic framing effects experiment, the study includes variables relevant to social media discussions on Twitter and examined the moderating effects of heterogeneity on emotional reactions. In addition, one of the important methodological contributions of the current study are the framing manipulations for an externally valid experimental design.

Nation-States, Labor Immigration, and Migrant Rights

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ruhs
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
High Income ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Basic Approach ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Core Set ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines the potential interrelationships between migrant rights and national policies for admitting migrant workers. It explains how we can expect high-income countries to regulate the rights of migrant workers as part of their labor immigration policies. It develops a basic approach that conceptualizes the design of labor immigration policy in high-income countries as a process that involves “choice under constraints.” It shows that nation-states decide on how to regulate the number, selection, and rights of migrant workers admitted in order to achieve a core set of four interrelated and sometimes competing policy goals: economic efficiency, distribution, national identity and social cohesion, and national security and public order. Although their importance and specific interpretations vary across countries, and over time, the chapter argues that each of these objectives constitutes a fundamental policy consideration that policymakers can and do purposefully pursue in all countries.

Locke’s Underlying Background Beliefs

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-206
Author(s):  
Ruth Boeker
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Moral Accountability ◽  
Over Time

This chapter brings together the results of the previous chapters and shows what role Locke’s moral, religious, metaphysical, and epistemic background beliefs play in his thinking about persons and personal identity. Locke breaks with traditional metaphysical debates, first, by adopting a metaphysically agnostic stance with regard to the materiality or immateriality of thinking substances and, second, by arguing for a kind-dependent approach to questions of identity over time. Locke’s moral and legal conception of a person, according to which persons are subjects of accountability, is informed by his moral and religious beliefs. His thinking about moral accountability can be challenged and has been challenged by his contemporaries. Although Locke has good reasons for distinguishing our idea of a person from that of a human being and of a substance, these reasons are based on his metaphysical agnostic views and his religious belief in an afterlife.

The Constitution of Free Speech

Art Attacks ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 29-57
Author(s):  
Malvika Maheshwari
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
The Right

The preliminary chapter outlines the conceptual foundation of India’s free speech regime by focussing on the debates of the Constituent Assembly of India that took place between 1946 and 1949, and traces the development of Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees all citizens the right to free speech and expression, albeit with certain ‘reasonable restrictions’ such as public order, decency and morality, and security of the state, among others. While offering a synoptic account of the sundry forms that the right to free speech took as the framers navigated the discrepancies between their imagined ideal and the existent, conflicting reality, the idea is not to uncover some grand master-plan of the Indian democracy from which it has faltered, but to explore how it might lend a fissure to the violent accusations of offending religious, cultural, or national sentiments in contemporary India.

The Nature of Offence

2021 ◽  
pp. 7-34
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hatzis
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Special Problem ◽  
Free Expression ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
State Coercion ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Offensive Speech

The experience of suffering offence relates to a constellation of unpleasant feelings stirred up when one’s expectations of being treated in a certain way are frustrated. This chapter explores how the nature of offence matters for the way the law responds to offensive conduct. Prohibiting speech which offends poses a special problem because it clashes with the free speech principle, i.e. the idea that there is something particularly important in being allowed to speak our minds, which sets free expression apart from a general liberty claim to choose a way of life. It is suggested that when deciding what should count as properly offensive for the purpose of exercising state coercion, only a very narrow definition of offensive speech is compatible with the values underlying freedom of expression. Then, offensive speech is distinguished from hate speech. As the two are morally different, it is inappropriate to borrow arguments from the hate speech debate to justify restrictions on offensive speech.

Origins of Equity

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Catharine Titi
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Thought ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Hard Law ◽  
Over Time

Equitable considerations have been present in human societies for unfathomable aeons. From ancient Greece and Rome to modern times, through ecclesiastical law and the medieval English Chancery, equity has introduced considerations of fairness in legal thought and has helped mitigate the harshness of draconian laws. What is considered equitable has varied over time, with the equitable innovations of the past typically becoming the hard law of today. The purpose of the chapter is to show equity’s continuity in time and across legal systems, as a stepping stone to the argument presented later in the book that equity is a source of international law. The chapter explains that the distinct ways in which we make sense of equity owe something to its historical evolution in our respective legal systems. Ultimately, the chapter highlights equity’s journey from municipal legal systems to international law.

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