Catholic Priest to be jailed in Spain for criticism of Islam under hate speech law. What is going on in Europe?

[Gwendoline]

A Catholic priest in Spain has been found guilty of purported “Islamophobic” remarks and faces up to three years in prison.

Father Custodio Ballester was charged after questioning Cardinal Juan José Omella’s 2016 assertion that inter-faith dialogue with Islam was “necessary.”

This is the problem with hate speech laws anywhere. They can be interpreted to mean anything to silence anyone governments want to silence or make an example of.

Updates

9 mo

Seemingly he will get more time that a rapist

[SuperZonicGUY1992]

Everyone attacking Catholics men. No one says shit about pastors living off people tithing. Like that fucking idiot Joel Osteen people in Texas were financially struggling hard times no food and the idiot Joel Osteen didn't open the doors to his people because he was more worried about his carpets getting dirty. Catholics have done more for the community then this evangelical wanna be Christian wolf in sheep's clothing. My buddy and his wife needed a home to live in he did a lot for the assembly of God church and put in a lot of money into the church he bought a house that was haunted with evil spirits no one not one single member or the pastor offer to help and they rented properties. My friend wasn't asking for a free place I put his home for sale and needed a place to pay rent yes he was going to pay rent and no one help him from that organization until one of his friends who is a Catholic offer my friend and opportunity a house he had available. Evangelical pastor and people only care about them selfs no one else selfish self centered people. That priest needs to be let free why because he spoke his opinion. Now a days if you say you hate chocolate ice cream you get in trouble. Stupid !

[Lliam]

It's even worse in the UK where you go to jail for opposing Israel's genocide against Palestinians. And it's almost as bad in the U. S.

Zionists are worse than the most murderous Muslims. In fact, the most murderous Muslims in the world - ISIS and their ilk - are led and funded by Israel and the U. S. for use as proxy armies and to justify Israeli expansionist aggression against Arabs.

It's Talmudic Jews (not all Jews) who believe Goyim must be dominated one way or another. Very few Muslims hate other religions or believe in violent world domination.

[FreyaRed]

"Hate speech" is just criticism. Incitement to violence or murder is a crime already.
Of course you aren't allowed criticize people who think they deserve to rule the world but are just pitiful incest ridden idiots. Who are easily to provoke and commit terror attacks, while you could retaliate very precisely, hitting their nerves and vital points.

It's only question of time until we need to start aggressive actions against Islam and their believers in EU and politicians know that but they try to delay this avalanche with pointless censorship in hate speech laws which are anti constitutional in many EU countries. Muslims will be never part of Europe and they will be never part of our nations.

[Gwendoline]

Seems to be the case as weve been warned many times by conservative commentators about hate speech laws in that hate speech is whatever the government decides is hate speech.

[Gwendoline]

Imagine i looked up your profile here and found a comment from a while back that id didn't like or thought was politically incorrect. Such as you criticised Palestinian support for HAMAS and I deemed that as hate speech and wanted to jail you for 3 years.

[FreyaRed]

Sentences for hate speech are clearly intimation attempts. In UK child rapist get much milder sentences than people who dare to criticize Islamic overlords or illegal immigration.
I'm just not sure if those politicians and prosecutors who pass through and support such draconian hate speech laws, do intentionally to increase disdain to groups those hate speech laws try to protect or are those people really that naive and stupid and think public gets widely intimidated and change really their minds?

[Gwendoline]

A comedian from Ireland got arrested at the airport in London by armed police for tweeting something the uk justice system deemed hate speech while he was on Ireland. They were waiting for him to get off the plane.

[Darklydarkened]

Ah, Americans, literal supporters of islamofascism, insurgencies, civil war and coups. And have the audacity to call others violent

[Anonymous]

This was where the U. S. was headed if the Democrats had continued getting into office, legally or illegally. New York is on the way there if they vote in Mamdani. California is almost too far gone, taxpayers and businesses are leaving by the tens of thousands. If they don't get rid of Newsom and Karen Bass and Mrs. Potatohead, all that will be left are the tax-takers, with no one to pay the taxes they leech off of.

[genericname85]

i have no idea what the guy says but you can't say things like "kill all muslims" in Europe. i don't believe for a second that all he said "inter faith dialogue with islam was necessary". that's not something that would bring anyone to prison.

[Gwendoline]

Thats exactly what he said. You can look it up and he said if 10 years ago.

[genericname85]

yeah i'm not doubting that he "said" it. i'm guaranteeing that that's not the reason he went to prison. and i did actually google cause i knew it had to be bullshit but i also didn't wanna talk out of my ass... so he got actually imprisoned for saying "Islam does not allow for dialogue. You either believe or you are an infidel who must be subdued one way or another" not for saying that "inter faith dialogue was necessrary". that's ridiculous. he was insinuating that one can't talk to muslims and that muslims are murderers cause he said muslims are murdering christians in muslim countries. so that's the hatespeech he got imprisoned for. and he could easily have avoided that by making a relative statement instead of absolutely talking about "all muslims".

[Gwendoline]

Hardly hate speech. You could flip. that and arrest anyone who criticises the Catholic church as catholicphobic hate speech.

[genericname85]

i actually agree that's hate speech also. cause you're indiscriminately accusing a very heterogenous group of people of commiting a certain crime, inciting hate towards that group. thus hate speech.

[genericname85]

if you'd just say "some muslims" behave like that or "certain groups of muslims", then it wouldn't be hatespeech. that's the difference.

[OlderAndWiser]

And so many left wing Americans think that everything in Europe is better than the US!

[Gwendoline]

Imagine someone coming after you for words they have decided is hate speech 10 years later.
I've said that transwomen shouldn't compete in women's sport. In 10 years time will I get jailed for 3 years or arrested at the airport when I fly home to England. Crazy.

[OlderAndWiser]

Yes. UK is even worse than the US for woke culture.

[Cubus]

The problem is: woke is coming mostly from the USA.

[OlderAndWiser]

No, it’s a worldwide affliction.

[Cubus]

Affirmative action comes from USA, the way Democrats started treating Africans (or at least believed how they should be treated). Now Europe adopted it towards Arabs and other ethnic minorities. The same with gay marriage.

[jshm2]

Lol, nothing so dramatic. He chose the wrong words, and will likely win his appeal.

It stems from a common sense law that forbids direct attacks at other groups. The article itself was nothing much, but it was just a few untethered rants in it, that went beyond the pale.

[Gwendoline]

The wrong words are anything governments says are wrong.
Have you ever criticised Christianity? What if if you were jailed for your Christianphobic words under hate speech laws for something you said 10 years ago?

[Darklydarkened]

You do realise criticising Christianity in christian lands doesn't have the same social and political clickings with criticising minorities that are already being accused of things that they are not the cause of, right?

Law is about context

[Anonymous]

It's really simple, the only place in the world where you can't be arrested for your speech, unless you're threatening someone or causing violence, is the US.

Welcome to the world where freedom of speech doesn't exist.. The EU, the UK, and every Asian country is the same. I guarantee those priests wouldn't get arrested here.

I mean what ever shit hole country they are in can try, but they will fail lol.

[RavVid]

Appalling.

It is OK for Imam to lead street parties when muslim terrorists kill and then the next day to rile against hatred for them celebrating the murders with street parties.

[RavVid]

Very just that he will get a longer term than a rapist.

[DJB72]

It's coming everywhere. Government in South Africa wants to decide what "acceptable doctrine" should look like and have the power to remove any church leader that doesn't get a license from them.

[exitseven]

Unchecked illegal immigration is the problem. European countries are losing their identities, Muslims are inundating cities and running for office.

This should be a lesson for the US.

[Cubus]

Mostly a problem for the est fortunately. At least for now.

[Med_guy1978]

What happened to free speach and expressing your opinion?

[Gwendoline]

Seems you are only allowed to criticise certain religions

[Med_guy1978]

Depends on where you are I guess

[strateguy632]

In general that punishment is horrible and the fact that rapists get smaller punishment shows how backward society is.

[guesswhereivebeen]

Amen to that… child molesters should be rounded up and fed to the crowd

[guesswhereivebeen]

It pisses me off that so much good air is wasted on them breathing

[Levin]

Unfortunately accomodating the entirely of the third world, has meant that Western Europe has had to dilute their own culture.

[Cubus]

Spain is a paradise for left wingers in overall.

[Gwendoline]

Seems the Red Terror had returned to Spain.

[glennos89]

Europe is heading downhill extremely fast. A few decades ago Europe was great. But since the introduction of the € things deteriated quickly

[slatyb]

This is in Spain, but other nations have similar laws, and even worse, many have laws against blasphemy. This shows the problem of any laws restricting "hate speech" that is not an immediate call to violence.

[Darklydarkened]

Yeah but what did he say? I don't trust Catholics

Besides, Spain is a chill place, Americans should stop worrying about Europe and think hard about what's going on at their own soil

[strateguy632]

But we americans MUST know what "accepted refugees" caused , so we end all immigration until national debt is as low as the 1984 ratio to gdp, when reagan- r was wonderful 1.6 trillion debt (my parents democrats used to lie 3 t, then) to 4 t. Gdp 1984, 1.6:4, so... now gdp 29t, so we can allow 7 times more debt, 11 trillion, until debt shrinks we must stop ALL CHARITY and accepting any REFUGEES even REAL ones because debt is too big.

[Gwendoline]

Not chill when people are getting arrested for nothing

[Darklydarkened]

You say nothing, I say he probably deserved being burned at the stake

[Gwendoline]

"You say nothing, I say he probably deserved being burned at the stake"
Now imagine in 10 years someone in government seems this to be hate speech

[Darklydarkened]

Imagine I say something insidiously hateful, but some dumbass abroad defending me

[Gwendoline]

You just did.

[Darklydarkened]

You're not very smart, are you?

[Gwendoline]

You are projecting your own insecurities

[Bricealan]

@gwendoline That is the direction that WE are headed Europe is already there.

[Sevenpointfive]

criticism of Islam? he's a priest! there's no other way to be for him in my opinion

[Sevenpointfive]

how can we distract from this GOP group chat leak full of racial slurs, rape promotion and whit pride? JDV (not to be confused with JCVD) thinks calling 18-40 year olds children is the solution and calls it a day. but this is the playbook. have an insane amount of accusations, conspiracies and cover-ups going all at once to confuse you.

in the end, it doesn't matter. you didn't need proof to know that the next republicans in line are racist pieces of shit. but if you accept it's okay. then you accept what the priest did as okay too. that's how the game works.

[loveslongnails]

I'm not familiar enough with what he actually said, so I can't make a sensible comment about it.

[Cidknee]

And I bet all he did is tell the truth!
Its prophesied Christians will be imprisoned and martyred for their faith.

[darkcloud1945]

That is a preview of what the AMERICA LAST DEMOCRATIC COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA wants to do right here in THE GOOD OLD USA.

[lilBigPotato]

Nothing is going on, just another of these stupid right wing shirts shitposts from you

He is not on trial for disagreeing with the cardinal or thinking a dialog with Islam isn't necessary. He's on trial for calling Muslims publicly termites, predatorian stains and shit like that. you can argue about the possible sentence but what he is saying isn't covered by freedom of speech anymore. spread hatred and deal with the consequences.

[Gwendoline]

Where did he say that?

[lilBigPotato]

Alerta Digital + social media according to prosecutor. That's why the director of alerta is also on trial.

Those things can be checked and the judges will look at it and take context and everything necessary into account. I doubt he will end up 3 years in jail, but if he's spreading stuff like that he can't complain if he gets a fine or something else

[Gwendoline]

No proof of that.

[lilBigPotato]

Luckily that's not on you to decide. If it was published in the magazine and shared on social media, it's easy to validate

[Gwendoline]

Then validate it.

[Anonymous]

meanwhile leftists are still threatening Charlie Kirk supporters while Pam Bondi is all talk and no action on this

[Anonymous]

If Spain is anything like the US then this hate speech thing is only one sided. The left has this childish way of thinking rules for thee but not for me. And our Gov. doesn't have a backbone to stop them.

[Danzigdawson]

"Catholic priest to be jailed" sounds about right... but usually it's because of sexual abuse of children.

[contentious]

It's call infiltration and demoralization. You guys need to find some balls.

[guesswhereivebeen]

So they can fuck kids by the bus load but talking shit to Muslims is just to far… what the fuck

[Paige90]

I'm not Catholic but that is wrong

[LiamJHayden]

Western Europe is falling without a fight.

[seeyounexttuesday]

That's so fucked up. Europe is failing.

[Kelly6]

@gwendoline I totally agree with this decision

[Gwendoline]

Until they come for you.

[Kelly6]

@gwendoline
That just US propaganda

[shortster]

Freedoms are going away.

[Dargil]

It looks to me that fascism one after all.

[Dargil]

Won not one

[Anonymous]

i applaud this correct decision