Here Comes Da Judge (Le Juge, Il Magistrato)

According to Austrian caricaturist Gerhard Haderer, his book The Life of Jesus is "not an attack on religion or on believers. It is meant for believers to take a more light-hearted look at their faith and through humor become closer to God."

But some of the faithful are (wait for it) outraged by Haderer's parody, even though the cartoonist's work is willfully silly rather than dark and mean-spirited — a bit along the lines of Monty Python's arguably more brilliant Life of Brian. For instance, Haderer's revisionist story shows Jesus "curing" a blind man by leading him outside and taking the misguided soul's sunglasses off. Another cartoon, at right, features the son of God using a surfboard rather than his bare feet to "walk" on water.  The Life of Jesus sold more than 100,000 copies in Germany, and has been published in six other countries, including Greece.

And there's the rub. The book is an affront to Greek church authorities, who have called it "evil," and who've succeeded in getting it summarily banned in that country. Now they want to see Haderer rot in jail. A Greek court has already convicted the Austrian in absentia, to six months behind bars. If he loses his appeal next month, the sentence might quadruple.

Creepy but true: In the European Union, the arm of the law is suddenly ten times longer than before. A writer or artist can be brought to justice on the orders of any two-bit magistrate, even if that person happens to swing the gavel in another country, two thousand miles away. Amsterdammers will have to answer to Vatican-adoring Italians, Berliners will have to get used to being held accountable by courts in rural Greece — and after Turkey joins the E.U., Iranian dissidents living in Paris might well have to defend themselves against blasphemy charges brought in Ankara.

Comments

[chinrua]

what a coward reaction to some of the cartoons, look into a few year back when the taliban blow up the two Budda statues in afghantisghan, people they do protest too, but in a good manner way in a non-violent way, have these muslim learn something from their god or just because their god is as violent as they are now.

chinrua