Is there a place called ‘Laurel & Hardy Land‘? Sometimes it would be nice if we could just sit back and chuckle at painful mishaps at lumber yards and boat marinas and know that this is meant to be comedy and parody and not meant to be serious in any way. Certainly not part of our real word. Sweden however is in an Æon Flux world where it is attempting to match fantasy with fact in an existentially threatening way. In Sweden, comedy and parody is a serious legal reality, a place where fantasy is fact.
Sweden has just declared that waving around the SCIS (So-Called Islamic State) standard is perfectly legal and not a hate crime¹. What do the words on the SCIS flag state?
There is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. [Arabic words on SCIS flag]
OK. So let’s see is we can parse the ruling. Because you wave a flag around stating the Islamic shahada, which states that God is only Allah and Mohammed knows him well (not that way), then what your flag is actually stating is that it hates everyone that isn’t Muslim, therefore it is not hateful to any particular group, therefore it is legal kosher halal. Therefore it is not a hate crime because Islam intrinsically hates everything that is not itself.
The sad part is that this sounds unerringly truthful and the Swedish courts are just adopting to the new legal way things have to be without the usual pretzel/logistical gymnastics required to square the legal circles that freedom and democracy demand.
Una Flux: We have different ways of solving problems.
Æon Flux: Yes. You choose to ignore them. [Æon Flux, 2005]
Oliver Hardy : Well…
Stan Laurel : Here’s another nice mess I got you into. [Chickens Come Home, 1931]
Life, liberty & the non-pursuit of socialism 