ECHR judgment in E.S v Austria isn’t about “defaming Mohammed”. It’s about inciting religious hatred. A thread. 1/
European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday that an Austrian court’s fine of 480 Euros did not violate right of expression of a far-right political activist.
Judgment here: hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-1871… 2/
Judgment here: hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-1871… 2/
The claimed victim organised “seminars” claimed to be educating about Islam, but really recruiting to the far-right Freedom Party. 3/
Central to these propaganda sessions was the claim that Mohammed was a paedophile, based on the fact of his marriage to 6 year old Aisha. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisha?wpr… 4/
The organiser was convicted of the Austrian crime of “disparaging religious doctrines”. The Austrian Supreme Court upheld the conviction > 5/ 
The European Court of Human Rights has long recognised that national courts can punish incitement to hatred: states need to “keep the peace”. 6/
The European court decided that the Austrian courr conviction & punishment were justified to counter incitement to hatred - this was “malicious violation of the spirit of tolerance” 7/
So the European Court didn’t talk about “defaming Mohammed”. It talked about keeping the peace and countering hatred of people on the basis of religion. 8/
The Court’s judgment is in line with previous rulings on limits on free speech needed to protect public order, including mocking Christianity hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-1805… 9/
IMO this case was right on the line. The paedophile label is a political strategy to generate contempt, fear and hate against Muslims. 10/
