The Blasphemy Collection

The concept of blasphemy seemed for some decades to be in decline in the West, but not any more.  It may be useful to look back at some recent cases of  militantly religious outrage...

Rated by
Vulgarity –the piece shocked through its conflation of the sacred and the profane
Criminality –the piece contravened laws in a given country
Religious impact –the work caused outrage from religious leaders
Political impact –speeches were made by governments, laws were created or changed.
Deaths – outrage at the work led to the death of one or more people

20. Jesus Christ Superstar
Crowds gathered in protest outside the Broadway theatre where this musical about Jesus and Judas was first staged. Some Christians took offence at the portrayal of Jesus as a man rather than as God and the sympathetic rendering of Judas Iscariot. The omission of the Resurrection was also a point of controversy. Some Jewish groups counted the performance as anti-Semitic in its depiction of Jewish crowds calling for Jesus’ death.
Vulgarity: 0 Criminality: 0 Religious impact: 4 Political Impact: 0 Deaths: 0

19.  Popetown
An animation of the life of fictional character Father Nicholas, who lives in Popetown (Vatican City) and works as the cartoon Pope’s handler, protecting the public from the truth that the animated pontiff is actually very stupid. The series, produced by the BBC was removed from scheduling before being aired on British television because of fears it would offend Roman Catholics. In Germany a full-scale campaign against the series continues.
Vulgarity: 3 Criminality: 0  Religious impact: 3 Political Impact: 0 Deaths: 0

18. Chocolate Christ
Cosimo Cavallaro’s My Sweet Lord, a rendering of the crucifixion in chocolate was pulled from a New York art gallery during Holy Week this year under pressure from the Catholic League.   
The 200lb sculpture, which exposed the genitals of the dying Christian saviour, incensed the Catholic League who bombarded the Lab gallery in Manhattan with protest emails.
Vulgarity: 5 Criminality: 0  Religious impact: 4 Political Impact:0   Deaths: 0

17. Ecce Homo
Photographs showing Jesus eating with homosexuals and transsexuals in an exhibition in Sweden, raised eyebrows in Europe between 1998 and 2000. The vivid images caused Pope John Paul II to cancel a meeting with the Swedish Lutheran Archbishop Karl Gustav Hammar who supported their exhibition.
Vulgarity: 3 Criminality: 0 Religious impact: 7 Political impact: 0 Deaths: 0

16. Strelnikoff Mary of Help of Brezje
An album cover showing Mary of Help cradling a rat above the title “Bitchcraft” was the Slovenian band’s statement on the Catholic teaching on abortion. There was subsequent outcry - almost 4000 public protests were made to the State Attorney’s Office in Ljubljana and over 1000 requests for indictment. It was refused by the High Court who said the album was “tasteless” but did not cross the line of what is permitted.
Vulgarity: 3 Criminality: 0 Religious impact: 4 Political Impact: 3 Deaths: 0

15. Jerry Springer the Opera
Based on the daytime TV phenomenon but with a sacrilegious twist, the British opera featured a character Jesus who dressed as a baby and regularly soiled his nappy. Protests when the opera was screened on British television saw Christians burning their TV licences outside BBC Television Centre, but other demonstrations were relatively sparse and tame.
Vulgarity: 7 Criminality: 0  Religious impact: 4 Political Impact: 0  Deaths: 0

14. The Life of Brian
Arguably, Monty Python’s finest hour the Life of Brian is a comic biopic of Brian Cohen, born at the same time as Jesus and mistaken for the Messiah. A satire on excessive religiosity the film was banned in many towns in the UK for its alleged blasphemous content. Particular offence was taken at the crucifixion scene where those being executed burst into song with the theme tune “Always look on the bright side of life”. In New York Nuns and Rabbis picketed screenings of the film, which was completely banned in some states. In Ireland Life of Brian wasn’t shown for eight years after it was made and not for 11 years in Italy. Just this year, a screening of the film in a church in Newcastle Upon Tyne caused uproar from conservative Christian group Christian Voice.
Vulgarity: 4 Criminality: 0  Religious impact: 5 Political Impact: 2   Deaths: 0

13. Rude Buddha
A sculpture of Buddha with a banana and two eggs strategically placed was happily on display at the Royal Academy of Arts this summer, but when it was moved to the sculptors’ home city of Norfolk it raised hackles amongst the local police force’s hate crime unit. DC Dan Cocks ordered it to be removed from the gallery. The artist said he aimed to show that in a global village everyone can take offence at something.
Vulgarity: 5  Criminality: 5   Religious impact: 2  Political Impact: 0  Deaths:0

12. Gilbert & George Sonofagod exhibition
The ‘two poofs’, as Gilbert refers to himself and George, have been bedfellows with controversy throughout their career, but they tested the boundaries of religious tolerance with their Sonofagod – was Jesus heterosexual? Exhibition at the White Cube. They raged against the Catholic Church and one of their images included the text “God loves fxxxing”. Tory MP Anne Widdecombe denounced it as “blasphemous”.

Vulgarity: 7 Criminality: 0  Religious impact: 2  Political Impact: 3  Deaths: 0

11. Cartoon of Jack Hobbs
Back in 1925, The Star newspaper printed a cartoon showing the Captain of the English Cricket team, Jack Hobbs, being revered by a “gallery of the most important historical celebrities”, Mohammed was among them. Muslims in India were enraged at the image and the Indian government passed resolutions of protest.
Vulgarity: 4 Criminality: 0  Religious impact: 5 Political Impact: 5   Deaths: 0

10. The Profit
A film about a con man who starts a religion in order to become rich. It is banned in the US because of a lawsuit taken out against it by The Church of Scientology - despite the filmmaker’s claims it is not based on the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard. Scientologists said the film was made to influence the jury in the case of Lisa McPherson who died while in the care of the Church of Scientology in Florida. 
Vulgarity: 0 Criminality: 3  Religious impact: 6 Political Impact: 6  Deaths: 0

9. Behzti (Dishonour)
Set in a Sikh temple, the play includes scenes of rape, murder and physical violence, which many Sikhs counted as supremely offensive. On its opening night at the Birmingham Rep a riot broke out and the performance cancelled. The protest took place as the Government was outlining legislation to outlaw incitement to religious hatred
Vulgarity: 7 Criminality: 0   Religious impact: 7  Political Impact: 2  Deaths: 0

8. Quran on toilet paper
Manfred van H. was sentenced to one year in prison on probation in Germany for posting toilet paper stamped with verses from the Quran to mosques and the media. He was charged for defaming religious convictions in a manner that would disturb public peace.
Vulgarity: 8 Criminality: 6  Religious impact: 5 Political Impact: 0   Deaths: 0

7. Chris Ofili’s Virgin Mary
The man who brought elephant dung to the art world created a Virgin Mary, surrounded by pictures of female genitals from pornographic magazines. It was removed from the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s ‘Sensation’ exhibition in 1999 after Rudy Giuliani, then Mayor, threatened to withdraw the $7m City Hall grant from the museum.

Vulgarity: 6 Criminality: 0  Religious impact: 5 Political Impact: 8 Deaths: 0

6. Penis on a cross by Danuta Nieznalska
The title of the piece says it all really. It contravened Polish blasphemy laws and the artist was fined, and banned from foreign travel for six months. She was sentenced to six months "restricted liberty" the Polish equivalent of community service.
Vulgarity: 8 Criminality: 9  Religious impact: 3 Political Impact: 0   Deaths: 0

5. Sony’s Cathedral shoot-out game
Games giant Sony chose to set their alien shoot-out game in Manchester Cathedral’s nave without permission from the Dean. The cathedral works to reduce violence in the city plagued by gun-crime, and threatened to sue Sony for breach of copyright of the interior of their building. The Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, told Parliament that large corporations like Sony should have more sensitivity and social responsibility in such cases. The controversy was resurrected when the game was nominated for a Bafta award and the Church called for the honour to be withdrawn.
Vulgarity: 5  Criminality: 5   Religious impact: 6  Political Impact: 5  Deaths: 0

4. Submission directed by Theo van Gogh
A 10-minute film about violence against women in Islamic countries, Submission depicted four Muslim women telling Allah the offences against them, while partially covered. Quranic texts, inciting women to submit, were projected on their bodies. The creator, Theo van Gogh and writer Hirsi Ali received death threats in Holland as a result of the film. In 2004 van Gogh was shot dead by a man who was caught fleeing the scene. Aftermath protests saw 174 incidents of violence against mosques, churches, and Islamic schools following the murder.
Holland’s Minister for Justice called for the country’s blasphemy laws to be implemented more stringently with counter calls for them to be abolished all together. An Independent Dutch MP called for a five-year ban on all non-Western immigration following the murder.

Vulgarity: 6 Criminality: 2  Religious impact: 8 Political Impact: 5   Deaths: 1

3. Piss Christ
Christ hanging on the Cross and suspended in a jar of the artist’s urine won the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art’s award in 1989 - a prize part-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, a US government agency. Debate about the photo went as far as the US Senate.
Vulgarity: 8 Criminality: 0 Religious impact: 4 Political Impact:10 Deaths: 0

2. Satanic Verses and Salman Rushdie’s Knighthood
Rushdie’s book which was a political satire on Islam led Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Khomeini in Iran to issue a fatwa (a religious ruling) sanctioning Muslims to kill the author for blasphemy. More than 10,000 marched on the British High Commission in India. Three people were shot and two died following the fatwa and 37 were killed in a riot in Turkey. Rushdie was forced into hiding for 10 years and has round the clock protection to this day, but he refused to apologise or recall the book. Robin Cook, then Foreign Secretary brokered a deal with the Iranians ensuring they would do nothing to carry out the fatwa, even though it still stood. When he was awarded a knighthood this year, the coals of the controversy were stoked and protest ignited once again with effigies of the author and The Queen burned on the streets in Pakistan. Al Qaeda threatened terror attacks against the UK in response to the honour. The book remains banned in Muslim countries.
Vulgarity: 6 Criminality: 9 Religious impact: 10 Political Impact: 10  Deaths: 39

1. Jyllands-Posten Mohammed Cartoons
Protests against the cartoons of Mohammed – one with a bomb in place of a turban – printed in the Danish Newspaper Jyllands-Posten, led to arrests, convictions, and caused over 100 deaths.
The newspaper claims it was contributing to the debate on self-censorship but Muslims across the world took offence at the depiction of their prophet, any image of whom is regarded as blasphemous.

Vulgarity: 4 Criminality: 7 Religious impact: 10 Political Impact: 10 Deaths: 100

Joanna Sugden

Comments

[Tim LL]

What - no mention of Madonna's Like A Prayer video?

[Andrew Milner]

Life of Brian: "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy." Priceless. Where’s your sense of humour, Infidels?

[Mik]

Isn't it interesting that only the ones where death resulted were against Islam?

[David]

According to the chart's death toll the score is:
-Islam: 140 deaths
-All others: none
That certainly makes it a religion of peace!

[John Wilson]

It should be pointed out that 'Resistance' (the Sony game) is not actually based in Manchester Cathedral, it only temporarily passes through it; and - despite the church's claim to the contrary - Sony did not actually require permission to depict it, and the church does not actually own - and cannot own - a copyright on the building. As such, Sony have not actually broken any law, and Blair really should have just shut up.

[Alan Harrison]

The report regarding Dorota Nieznalska is inaccurate and incomplete. She was not fined, but sentenced to six months "restricted liberty" and the Polish equivalent of community service.
She appealed, the verdict was overturned in 2004, and her retrial is still proceeding now, with 23 hearings to date. (See www.spam.art.pl and click the button "Proces Doroty N".)

[alan]

The concept of blasphemy is flawed. Making a mockery of anyone's opinions, religious or otherwise, is perfectly legitimate within the context of free speech. It doesn't matter if anyone's "religious" feelings are hurt. Other people's non-religious feelings are often hurt too - e.g. by the spoutings of preachers, parsons and popes. -- No, free speech finds its limitations in slander and libel. Also whenever a person's race or physical/mental disabilities are ridiculed (these being things over which a person has no choice, in contrast to opinions).

[Amin Aswet]

I am surprised at the Vulgarity and Criminality ratings given to the Danish cartoons. Those I saw were not vulgar. In my opinion they were legitimate comment on a public position adopted by many Muslim clerics and preachers and were funny into the bargain: for example where the prophet calls for a stop to murder by suicide bombings because they are running out of virgins. As to the bomb in the turban, it was an apposite comment on the support givenby many sheiks, imams etc to murder by bombing in the name of their religion. As to ciminality, in what European country were they illegal? France, Spain and elsewhere a point was made of publishing them in protest at the violent reactions stirred up, provoked and encouraged by some Imams in Denmark. That Jack Straw did not want them published in the UK did not make them illegal but much cruder and crueller cartoons get published about UK politicians. There exist many depictions of Mohammed in Islamic art, so your statemetn that any image of his is consdidered blasphemous is probably inaccurate, just look online dn you will find them.

[Simon Ferguson]

i think that you will find (on closer examination) that there is a history of 'images of the the prophet' in Islam - particularly among the Shia. So ,then, it becomes a matter of 'what image' is deemed permissable for 'the faithful' & what happens to those whose image falls beyond the pale ie: through art & humour. And then it becomes a matter of what the rest of us will tolerate - or not.

[John F]

Very interesting.

Now how about an article about all of the crimes which have been committed in the name of religion?

[Dan Russell]

You seem to have missed out the Abortion Act, one of the greatest insults to the key tenets of Christianity, the sacredness of life.

[J Wood]

and when will you have an article about how many religious activities and events are offensive to the non-religious ?

[sarah]

Well reading Simon Ferguson's comment - its very clear that your trying to highlight all the crimes done by muslims, why not think of the cause of them doing such things in the first place ever thought of that? (guess not). And those muslims who do crimes 'in the name of religion' are not being true to their faith the quran does not teach one to go about hurting others those muslims are not true and should not bring religion into it!

[Erik]

The Mohammad cartoons were not illegal at all, that was tried in a court of law. Deeming them unlawful to the seventh degree is a GROSS insult to all Danes and rest assured that we will not hesitate to...

Well, better no go into that in an open forum, but it involves dragonships and battle axes.

[Bob]

No South Park?

[Michael]

We are introduced to the religion of our parents, we rarely choose a religion.
Whilst some religions preach tolerance, Islam clearly does not.
There is a danger that if tolerance is taught then some followers will choose other religions when they are mature enough to make that decision.
The religion they leave is not affected but the leaders are.
No one likes to see their flock dwindle so Islam's leaders preach intolerance knowing that it will stop people converting to other religions for fear of harmful reprisals.
Islam is going through the same bigoted stages of development that Christianity went through and will eventually mature and moderate, I hope.

[Davey Boyd]

Christ neither incited violence nor did violence, and neither did His immediate followers. On the other hand, Mohammed issued calls for violence and also did act violently, as did his immediate followers.

And today, Christians are very offended when our Lord Jesus Christ is defamed. But look at which religion causes all the deaths! Islam: 140 deaths, All others: none.

[Mark]

How about a list of religions crimes against humanity or crimes carried out against humanity in the name of religion I suspect it would be a list as long as eternity

[Deborah]

Davey - how can you say deaths caused by Islam 140, all others none?! most wars have some religious theme behind them, take for example Northern Ireland, I don't think Islam had much to do with the deaths in the troubles.

[Mary McConnell]

You have a concise list of blasphemous movies here with one exception: The Profit .

Scientology's creator was L. Ron Hubbard. He was a con man and convicted criminal, & not a god.

The only reason Scientology did not want the movie ( The Profit ) shown was because the story line contained
demonstration of some similarities to it's " con game ". That's why Scientology still does not want the movie released.

To my knowledge, there was nothing blasphemous about the film, and certainly not comparable to the other movies on your list.

blas·phe·my (blăs'fə-mē) n., pl. -mies. is defined:

A contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity.

The act of claiming for oneself the attributes and rights of God.

An irreverent or impious act, attitude, or utterance in regard to something considered inviolable or sacrosanct.

Scientology's Hubbard was himself blaphemous in his writings, comments and regard to christianity. Listen here
http://www.xenu.net/archive/multimedia.html

I am very surprised that Martin Scorsese's "Last Temptation of Christ" was not listed here. In the USA "Life of Brian" was known to be a Monty Python parody, and no one took it seriously. "LTC" set off a firestorm of protests from the conservative Christian community, with calls for boycotts of this "blasphemous" film. One thing they didn't do, however, was call for Scorsese's blood the way the Mohammedans howled for Rushdie's. ISLAM IS INTOLERANT.

[alan]

David Boyd - just one interesting point. I commented that it was somehow odd that the overwhelmingly catholic countries, Italy and Woytola's Poland, were the most avid military supporters of the Iraq war.. - The answer I got from an erudite catholic was that the "love-your-enemy" from the sermon on the mount was somehow watered down by Jesus using physical violence to eject merchants from the temple. What do you say now?

[David Bennington]

You cannot argue rationally with a religious person because religious beliefs are, by definite, illogical and ill-founded. So the only way to counter religious intolerance and bigotry is by mockery and derision. Remember that one of the most effective tools against Hitler was Chaplin's film The Great Dictator. So long live blasphemy - may it find a new lease of life.

[georges]

No mention of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. How come? It was a dramatic act of desecration, intended to show that Buddhism (and, indeed, Buddhists) had no right to exist. It certainly puts the Danish cartoons in context.

How did Buddhists respond? Did they burn down any embassies? Did they issue any death threats? Did they march around with placards saying "slay the enemies of the Buddha"? No, they reacted with quiet dignity. So let's ignore them and concentrate on placating the violent instead.

[Felix Turner]

It makes me sick to read about what these people have done.As a Catholic it saddens me how many people have insulted Jesus Christ in such disgusting ways, yet every single one of these people have every right to do so and I believe that no one should try to stop them.