Blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for a religious deity or the irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable.
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The Jade Emperor of heaven initially wishes to punish Sima for his blasphemy, but the embodiment of the Planet Venus talks him into letting the scholar act as the King of Hell for twelve hours to test his worth.
In April 2013, Leonard was doused with water from bottles shaped like the Virgin Mary by four topless FEMEN activists while participating in a debate with philosophy professor Guy Haarscher on the subject of blasphemy and freedom of speech at the Université libre de Bruxelles.
In Kastel, he was accused in court of blasphemy and moral subversion, which was then still prosecuted in the Catholic parts of West Germany.
Among her signature campaigns was the defence of Salman Rushdie after Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwā, or religious ruling, 14 February 1989 based on the charge that the book The Satanic Verses (1988) was a work of blasphemy.
Average Blasphemy (stylized AVERAGE BLASPHEMY) is a DVD collection of Dir En Grey's most recent videos including the 10 minute version of Vinushka and Dozing Green that was voted best video on Headbangers Ball 2008.
In December 2003, Greece prosecuted for blasphemy Gerhard Haderer, an Austrian, along with his Greek publisher and four booksellers.
However, in 1989, the Jogye Order, the representative order of traditional Korean Buddhism, strongly opposed the selling of the dish because the name is considered a blasphemy to Buddhism.
In March 2010 Durham testified via video conference during hearings before the Constitutional Court of Indonesia concerning proposed revision of Indonesia's 1965 Blasphemy Law.
In the trial of William Hone for blasphemy in 1817, Ellenborough directed the jury to find a verdict of guilty, and their acquittal of the prisoner is generally said to have hastened his death.
On September 21, 2012, Pastafarian Giorgos Loizos was arrested in Greece on charges of malicious blasphemy and offense of religion for the creation of a satirical Facebook page called "Elder Pastitsios", based on a well-known deceased Greek Orthodox monk, Elder Paisios, where his name and face were substituted with pastitsio – a local pasta and béchamel sauce dish.
A week prior to Dr Azad's assault, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, one of the renowned religious leaders of Bangladesh demanded, in the parliament, that Dr Azad's political satire Pak Sar Jamin Sad Bad would be banned and demanded the introduction of the Blasphemy Act on the author.
John William Gott (1866–1922), last person in Britain to be sent to prison for blasphemy
His research and teaching interests include the history of early modern ideas, blasphemy and irreligion in early modern Europe, Thomas Hobbes, Biblical criticism, urban disease, the history of reading and scholarship, and the use of information technology in the study of history.
In February 2012, a Saudi Arabian poet and journalist Hamza Kashgari, who had published three tweets of a would-be conversation with Muhammad, tried to leave Kuala Lumpur to seek political asylum in New Zealand in order to avoid apostasy or blasphemy charges and likely execution, and was detained by Malaysian authorities.
Although widely regarded as a liberal, he upheld the blasphemy conviction of Gay News (1979), punctured the GLC's Fares Fair low-cost public transport policy (1981), and supported the banning of trade unions at GCHQ (1985).
"The truth is that the court .... decides this question in accordance with what seems to be just or reasonable in its eyes. The judge finds in himself the criterion of what is reasonable. The court is in this sense making a contract for the parties - though it is almost blasphemy to say so." (Lord Wright of Durley, Legal Essays and Addresses (1939), p259.)
She has also played an active role in the effort to pressure the Bulgarian government to free Michael Shields, and recently Gillian Gibbons, the teacher jailed in Sudan for blasphemy who has now been pardoned.
In 2011 a man believed to be a member of Dawat-e-Islami assassinated Pakistani politician Salmaan Taseer due to the latter's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.
In 1996, the band recorded the Vulcano cover "Witches Sabbat" with guest vocalist Goat (ex-Satanized) for the second Headbangers Against Disco split EP which also featured Usurper (de) and Unpure, and the song "Hellish Blasphemy" for the Gummo soundtrack; the latter was re-recorded for the band's second album, Devil's Force, which featured Zweetsloot and Nödtveidt again.
His late paintings on New Testament subjects of that period were praised by liberal critics like Vladimir Stasov, criticized by conservatives as illustrating Ernest Renan rather than the New Testament and forbidden by the authorities for blasphemy.
At the end of 2002, students held mass demonstrations protesting the death sentence of reformist lecturer Hashem Aghajari for alleged blasphemy.
His play, Blasphemy, is about the 1697 prosecution and execution of Thomas Aikenhead for blasphemy.