legally aggravated religious insults

A devout Christian couple have been cleared of insulting a Muslim guest because of her faith. Benjamin and Sharon Vogelenzang were accused of launching a tirade against Ericka Tazi at the Bounty House Hotel in Aintree, Liverpool, in March.

... She claimed the couple became enraged when she wore a hijab on her last day and accused Mr Vogelenzang, 53, of asking her if she was a murderer and a terrorist.

She also told the court Mr Vogelenzang called the Prophet Muhammad a murderer and a warlord and likened him to Saddam Hussein and Hitler. But the couple denied her version of events and claimed Mrs Tazi told them Jesus was a minor prophet and that the Bible was untrue.

There was a story told about Camus where he sent his kid up to his room for some dinner table misdemenour, and the kid said: goodnight, minor writer of no importance before stalking off. Anyway:

... The two-day trial ended when Judge Clancy ruled that the evidence against the hoteliers was "inconsistent" and dismissed the case.

He told the couple that religion and politics was the "tinderbox which set the whole thing alight" because of both parties' "strongly entrenched positions".

Explaining his reasons for dismissal, Judge Clancy said Mrs Tazi's claim that she was verbally attacked for up to an hour had not been backed up by the other witnesses. He also said the language Mrs Tazi used in the exchange "did not quite form the same religious view" that was put to him on the stand.

Apparently, Mrs T asked if they’d prefer it if she got her tits out when they started frothing about her hijab.

This looks like a classic of the unintended legal consequences genre. My take on this was that the accused are a couple of religious bigots, tendence jeebus. But it’s also obvious that the plaintiff was perfectly capable of giving as good as she got, and in the long run that’s probably the best method of making it clear to people who think they have some sort of right to insult you that this kind of behaviour has consequences. Instead you’ve got a result that seems to legally vindicate picking on people with unpopular imaginary friends.

Comments

[Barry Freed]

Don't mention the war.