On 25 October, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said an Austrian woman’s conviction for making the link between the prophet of Islam and paedophilia didn’t breach her freedom of speech.
Specifically, she was found guilty of ‘publicly disparaging an object of veneration of a domestic church or religious society, namely Muhammed, the Prophet of Islam, in a manner capable of arousing justified indignation.’ This takes as fact that Muhammed is worthy of veneration which is problematic legally and religiously as Muhammed is not ‘worshipped’ by Muslims.
The woman, ES, during two public seminars in 2009 drew attention to the fact (recorded in Islamic writings Sahih al-Bu-khari 7: 62: 64, and in the Qur’an in Surah 65 4 where it talks about how to divorce a pre-pubescent girl) that Muhammad was married to a six-year-old girl called Aisha, and consummated the marriage when she was nine. She said: ‘A 56-year-old and a six-year-old? What do you call that? Give me an example? What do we call it, if it is not paedophilia?’
