Hate Speech Bill and Related Legislation

INTRODUCTION

There are two pieces of legislation which have already been passed and two pieces of legislation on the table which could have a major impact on church activity and the practice of Christianity in South Africa. Similar bills have been passed in other countries with serious results for churches.

The Equality Act

The Equality act,which has already been passed, has a laudable objective which is to prevent discrimination on racial, religious and gender grounds. The problem with the legislation is that unlike other laws where a person is innocent until the state has proved guilt, under this law the burden of proof is on the accused to prove innocence. This is both unbiblical and undemocratic. If a pastor for example has refused to marry a homosexual couple he /she has to prove they were not acting in a discriminatory manner. The same goes if a church is all white or all black due to geographic circumstances how would they prove that it is not deliberate.

The Commission for the Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities has also been passed. The front page of the Natal Witness bore the headline "South African Govt too Pro - Christian." Weekend Witness Oct 8th 2005. The article questions again why there are Christian holidays still celebrated in South Africa and makes the point that Christianity dominates other religions. The following Monday the letters page in the Daily news was dominated by letters of complaint about Christian holidays (Christmas and Easter ) These have been referred to home affairs for decision.

The proposed hate speech bill has even more serious ramifications. Under the same type of legislation Pastor Daniel Scot was convicted of hate speech for a seminar on the tenets of Islam. (full story attached for verification ) In the Mercury on Nov 10th it was reported that a Pastor in Stockholm ( no name given ) has been found guilty under that countries hate speech legislation for denouncing gays. The Lawyers Christian fellowship in the UK have made the following statements about the UKs hate speech bill

A law against stirring up religious hatred sounds like an excellent idea - the Gospel is a Gospel of love and all Christians would support measures to punish and deter those who deliberately create hatred of others on religious grounds. However, the way the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill has been written means it is very likely it will have dangerous consequences which the Government did not intend it to have. For example:

A very similar law passed recently in Australia has led to the prosecution of a mainstream Christian pastor who taught a seminar on Islam. The judge decided that the seminar incited 'intense dislike' of Muslims and this was enough to count as 'hatred'.

• Already in England, under existing law, a street preacher's conviction for a public order offence was upheld by the High Court because he held a placard which said 'Stop Homosexuality' ' Stop Immorality' 'Turn to Jesus' and the court said those words were 'abusive and insulting' to a certain section of the community.
• Also, in certain areas of England with large Islamic populations, Churches have already been asked to take down posters saying things like 'Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life' because they could be considered insulting to people of other religions. If the Religious Hatred Bill becomes law it would be even more likely that the freedom for Christians to speak about such things would be removed.
• Because Christianity teaches tolerance and grace, it is likely that it would be people of other religions, extremists or activist groups, who would try and prosecute Christian leaders, rather than Christians prosecuting other. There are already examples of this sort of behaviour - the Mysticism and Occult Federation monitored Premier (Christian) Radio in order to find grounds for complaint. They then sent those complaints to the Radio Authority. That Authority upheld some of the complaints that it was offensive for Premier radio to warn of the dangers of the occult on air.
• In a recent case (August 2005) under the similar Australian law, a witch sought to prosecute the Salvation Army for using the Alpha course to preach the good news in the prison where the witch was serving time. The judge said the claim was 'preposterous' but criticised the law which allowed the Salvation Army's time to be wasted as well as the embarrassment and bad publicity of a police investigation and trial, all of which happened even though they were eventually found not guilty. This sort of legal battle and publicity would almost inevitably happen in this country if the new law is brought in

Conclusion about the Religious Hatred Bill

1. The idea of preventing stirring up of religious hatred is one that all Christians should support. But:
2. The current laws against religiously aggravated harassment, property damage and violence are enough to protect Muslims and other religious minorities.
3. The proposed law could worryingly reduce freedom of speech and in particular, the freedom to preach the Gospel.
4. The way the law is written means that it would be no defence for a vicar or pastor to say that they had been preaching in good faith or that they had not intended to stir up hatred. It would not even be a defence to say that they had not stirred up religious hatred - all that is needed is that it was likely that their words would stir up hatred.
5. The ability to prosecute people of other religions because they teach beliefs contrary to your own would be very divisive and create damaging hostility between different groups in the community

For these reasons, the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill should be opposed

Our proposed bill in South Africa is very similar in nature stating that :

Offenses and penalties relating to hate speech 2 (1) any person who in public advocates hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion against any other person or group of persons that could reasonably in the circumstances be construed to demonstrate an intention to -
1. be hurtful
2. be harmful or incite harm
3. intimidate or threaten
4. promote or propogate racial religious gender or ethnic superiority
5. incite imminent violence
6. cause or perpetuate systemic disadvantage
7. undermine human dignity or
8. adversely affect the equal enjoyment of any persons or group of persons rights and freedoms in a serious manner

is guilty of an offence

This could result in a fine or imprisonment of up to 3 years for a first offence and more for later offences. Public places include churches. It can be seen immediately for Christians to promote Jesus as the only way would cause a problem with sec (d) . Those denominations that have only male leaders and priests would definitely be practising systemic disadvantage as proposed in (f) and how does a court determine what is hurtful. The comments made by the Christian lawyers Association of the UK are equally pertinent to South Africa. We MUST inform the Churches and rally to prevent this bill from being passed

The fourth bill is the Prohibition of Mercenary Activity and Prohibition and Regulation Of Certain Activities in an Area of Armed Conflict bill which sounds as if it could have nothing to do with Christians. The problem comes in the related activities section which requires that any organization wanting to be active in these areas will have to apply to the government for permission. It was reported in the Mercury as follows

The Bill goes even further by outlawing humanitarian work in conflict areas without authorisation from the South African government.

One of the main criticisms of the new legislation is the restrictions it placed on humanitarian aid.

Institute for Security Studies researcher Henri Boshoff said it was unrealistic to expect humanitarian agencies to wait 30 days for authorisation when their assistance was needed immediately.

The South African Red Cross Society said that if the Bill became an Act, it would conflict with the society's fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

Cassiem Khan, the Johannesburg Director of Islamic Relief Worldwide, said it would compromise the independence and impartiality of humanitarian organisations. He said the Bill aimed to have international humanitarian NGOs under the protection of the military force.

"This compromises our humanitarian work because we have to be absolutely independent and impartial.

"We are active in such zones as Iraq and Afghanistan. We remained in disputed areas when other international non-governmental organisations decided to withdraw their staff."

Humanitarian aid includes church and missionary activity and the definitions of areas of armed conflict are extremely broad and do not even have to be proclaimed. This bill is being rushed through parliament currently . All of these proposals together are a very worrying trend in South Africa and it is time for the Church to rise up and get involved.

(From Jo-Ann Downs, ACDP Deputy President)

Research Material