Poster crime

Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, but DON’T WORRY, there is still always plenty of time to arrest people for OffenDing ReLigious SentiMent.

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of offending religious sentiment, after posters bearing an image of the Virgin Mary with her halo painted in the colours of the rainbow flag appeared in the city of Płock in central Poland.

The Polish interior minister, Joachim Brudziński, announced on Twitter on Monday that a person had been arrested for “carrying out a profanation of the Virgin Mary of Częstochowa”.

So Poland has a law against “profanation” does it? So the law is an arm of the church in Poland?

A Płock police spokeswoman confirmed a 51-year-old woman had been arrested over the alleged offence. The woman had been abroad, but upon her return, the police entered and searched her home, where they found several dozen images of the Virgin Mary with the rainbow-coloured halo.

The original image is an icon. It’s in a monastery. The monastery is a big deal. The Guardian calls it “Poland’s holiest Catholic shrine.” One wonders what grading system The Guardian uses to rate the holiness of various Catholic shrines.

Offending religious feeling is a crime under the Polish penal code. If convicted, the woman could face a prison sentence of up to two years.

Oh yeah? Well my religious feeling is offended when cops arrest women for having posters of a woman with a rainbow halo. My religious feeling is that states have no right to enforce religious taboos.

Brudziński, who described the posters as “cultural barbarism” when they appeared overnight in April, said: “Telling stories about freedom and ‘tolerance’ doesn’t give anyone the right to offend the feelings of believers.”

Yes it does. Yes it does. Yes it does. Especially since it appears Poland could do with a lot more stories about freedom and tolerance, and fewer stories about holiest shrines and profanation and cultural barbarism.

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