Wendy WilliamsAN atheist Easter procession has been banned and its organisers taken to court to ‘protect the image’ of Semana Santa.
Madrid’s local government has come up with 11 reasons to prevent the event that was planned for Maundy Thursday in the capital.
And it has launched legal proceedings against the group Ateos en Lucha insisting it is ‘ridiculing religion’ and ‘glorifying terrorism’.
The move comes after 10 citizens filed complaints against the non-believers march that was planned to take place alongside various Catholic processions on the same day.
The State Association of Christian Lawyers launched the prosecution insiting it ‘coincides with Catholic processions which have been known for years’.
Madrid’s government then banned the march, declaring: “It is necessary to protect the tourist image of the city of Madrid”.
Organisers insisted however, that the procession neither took place at the same time or the same place as various religious events.
“Madrid has just agreed with the arguments presented by the most fundamentalist part of the Catholic Church,” a spokesman said.
Send the riot squad in to crack some skulls and teach them a lesson in manners and respect. If they try it again repeat and double the dosage.
So much for “secular” Spain… The Jerez Ayto struggles to pay staff on time, but has no problem coming up with the €300k which it effectively gives to the local Union de Hermandades (by setting up the palcos for free)…
“It is necessary to protect the tourist image of the city of Madrid”
Yes, that’s much more important than free speech and the right to march and protest. Progressive Spain. Not.
@Gresham – Wow, great example of Christian ethics, love and forgiveness there! Certainly confirms the ‘moral foundation’ for which the Christians maintain their right to undue political influence, tax breaks and the accumulation of wealth.
Amazing to see the the faith of some is so fragile it is fundamentaly threatened by some one expressing a different *idea*
Athiests are the new terrorists.
Great! Score another one for the Christian idiots who believe in an invisible guy who had sex with his own mother to father himself. When will these people get a clue that we live in the 21st century? All religious belief should be classified as a mental defect. If I stood on the street and said aliens talk to me through my dental work and promise me everlasting life if spread their message and mutilate my genitals (circumcision)- I would be locked up – but these people, because their delusion is based on an ancient desert cult – backed by a tax exempt organised church – are deemed sane. What gives?
“Fred
APRIL 19TH, 2011 3:39 PM
Athiests are the new terrorists.”
How many planes did atheists fly into buildings? Oh that’s right. Those horrible acts were done because of religion. Troll!
I remember having a very interesting conversation with a Spanish tourist from Valencia, in my favourite watering hole in Guadix.
To precis what he said – “fascism did’nt die with the death of Franco, it just changed how it operated, the old Fascist families still control everything in Spain”.
Remember it was the syphillus riddled Christian knights that burned all the manuscripts, all 10 tons of them in the great Arab university of Granada and the Tuetonic Christian knights who destroyed the irreplaceable manuscripts in the great library of Constantinople – clearly the actions of sub-human terrorists.
Look at all the mass extermination campaigns carried out over the centuries and you will find religion organizing all of them and overwhelmingly the champions were Christians – perhaps the final solution should have been reserved for them.
I think the syphilis has got to your brain or the bit that dictates spelling.
MichiganMike, I am talking about Spain, not the US. You need to keep on topic and stop drifting off on a tangent. The real truth about 911 is yet to be exposed btw. I suppose you’ll be telling me next that a plane flew into the Pentagon as well? So do show us some evidence of that please. Remember too that one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. If you were an Afghan the US would be the terrorists.
As a smarter man than me has previously said, and I’m paraphrasing here:
“In the absence of other influences, Good people will continue to do Good things and Bad people will continue to do Bad things. But… to get Good people to do Bad things, you really need religion”
Let them march around ,the Christians that is ,most tourists and a lot of locals like it ,I quite like it myself.Why would non believers like myself want to march about?
Gresham your a joke. You can’t historical fact so you resort to picking up on aminor spelling error – says it all really does’nt it – you silly chump.
@Mary…
The reason for my objection is the level of State financial support that christians receive for events like this. Unlike some fundamentalists (on all sides), I don’t want to stop Semana Santa parades; my beliefs are secure enough to not be threatened by the ideas of others.
I just want a level playing field and since the state cannot fund the whims of *all* special interest groups it should not fund the whims of any. That way, the christians can celebrate their festivals and muslims and jews and whoever else can celebrate theirs, all funded by their own patrons, supporters and donors…
All whilst the athiests get on with the business of improving, understanding and explaining the world through Science and Learning which, ironically enough, invented the printing presses, radios, televisions and internet that religions use to propagate their peculiar brand of medieval discrimination.
So much for free speech and equality. Presumably Madrid only wants Catholic
tourists then?
Who is Gresham, and what’s his benefit to the rest of the world? Sounds like a thing you can open a door with. And it’s not a handle.
All you atheists are very welcome to join in our celebrations of Easter, but the authorities in their wisdom didn’t really believe that a Christian motive was involved and that your otherwise welcome presence was really not about the love of your fellow human beings. Hence the ban.
As for persecutions, sure leaders of any group of people, religious or otherwise have been guilty in the past of using their power to their own ends, but let us not forget that the most horrendous crimes ever against humanity occured in this century, Hitler 6,000,000 Jews plus responsibility for up to 50,000,000 lives of others fighting him, Stalin 20,000,000 people, and of course our dear little man with his Little Red Book, Mao, now thought to have exterminated 80,000,000 Chinese.
All members of that great band of brothers – anti-religious zealots, not to mention atheism of course.
Christ’s message was simple – Faith, Hope, Charity and Love and greatest of these is Love.
The problem is we mere humans just cannot handle that, hence the proposed Brave March of the Atheists.
I don’t suppose the Church checked it was ok with the Pagans before hijacking what was – at the time – their big day.
Tony,
you absolute hypocrite – Central/South America – 40 million plus exterminated with the utmost brutality by the Spanish Catholics and all sanctioned by the Pope in Rome – as long as he got his cut of the looted gold and silver – funny you missed that one.
Also the Nazi special SS units who worked so hard in the death camps were ALL good Protestants and Catholics – funny you missed that one as well.
You also forgot to mention the Inquistion was set up by the Pope in Rome to exterminate the Cathars who had the temerity to practise REAL Christianity and treat women as equals.
The Catholic church has always supported murdering Fascist regimes and even today is outraged that the Croation mass murderers were sentenced to lengthy sentances for War Crimes at the Hague at that was only last week not centuries ago – you Catholics make fools of yourselves all the time. I know plenty of ex-Catholics who you really would’nt want to meet spouting your bigoted and denialist views.
Seems I’ve successfully extracted your venom, Stuart, I’d hate to be a Christian if you were a dictator. Slight exaggerations in your response, only to be expected, for a start I doubt there were 40 million in South America 500 years ago.
But as I said no power in human hands is without corruption, religion no exception, but we live in todays world and the crimes I mentioned in effect todays crimes committed in a so-called modern, civilised world by dictators with absolutely no deference to Christanity, except to the extent of fooling people like yourself.
“Love thy neighbour as thyself”, if we all did that, atheists included, there would never be wars.
Peace be with you, neighnour.
Erm Tony, Hitler was a member of the Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church never saw fit to excommunicate him…
Tony,
you are either unschooled(unlikely) or demonstrating how cowardly you religious freaks are.
When Cortez landed in what is now Mexico a Moor cabin boy was still recovering from smallpox. It wiped out whole tribes of indigenous peoples, not only in what is now mexico but right up inot North America as well and was an important part of that sub-humans victory over the Aztec civilisation. It is estimated to have killed over 25 million.
You doubt there were 40 million in South America 500 years ago – where does doubt come into it – do some research you lazy catholic or more likely stop lying when the truth does’nt suit you.
As you well know Franco had the total support of the Catholic church and they actually urged him to murder all Communists/Anarchists and Socialists – in fact the Catholic church gave absolution to all the killers, calling it – God’s work.
Love thy neighbour – LOL what a great shame for the world that the murderous Catholic church has never ever followed this commandment
The devastastaion that this wrought throughout North/Central and South America
Comments regarding the banning of the Atheists march have now deteriorated to a slanging match regarding the Catholic Church, a great pity.
Try to remember that Easter celebrations are just that – a celebration of a 2000 year old faith. No one is trying to hurt anyone, convert anyone or otherwise infringe any person’s freedom. It’s a PARTY of celebration, remember, joy and all that sort of thing? Unlike the proposed Atheist march which seemed pointless, without anything to celebrate apart from self-righteous condemnation.
Hitler may have been born a Catholic, but he NEVER practised his parent’s faith – how could he, he was a Nazi? Your ignorance Stuart and Guirizano is quite profound. Did you not know that Hitler was a dictator? Any opposition crushed mercilessly, and that’s what dictators do? He sent nearly a million Christians to his concentration camps and when the Catholic Bishops of the Netherlands spoke out against his policies, it resulted in even worse suppression of Jews, the country losing over 70% of their number in death camps, a greater proportion of the population than from any other country. Not to mention the consequences for the Church in that country. The Catholic Church spoke out as much as it dared for fear of intimidating this madman into even more heinous crimes, but at the same time managed to extract more Jews from possible extermination than any other organisation.
It is true that Fascist regimes hijacked religion to further their ends, but once again opposition to this would result in ruthless extermination. How can any of us, Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Muslim, Atheist, Communist, know truly how we would react under the terror of such a regime? Would we co-operate at a basic level, in order to live to fight another day; or fight and face extinction? Compared to Hitler, the present tyrants in the Middle-East are being relatively lenient with protestors; Hitler would have machine-gunned thousands.
As for South America and the conquest, we must seek perspective but offer no excuses; consider Judge Jeffrey’s assizes in the late 17th.c., the executioner stood up to his thighs, unable to move, in people he had quartered after being hung and drawn. The French revolution, the English civil war, etc. Consider that even in the UK, well into the mid-nineteenth century, we were still hanging people for relatively minor crimes of theft. For even lesser crimes ‘convicts’ were shipped off to Australia, never to return. These were ghastly centuries and right up to the 20th.c. such barbarity commonplace; religion may have been a factor but the events would still have taken place.
So all in all, the proposed atheist march was a great, if failed, idea. It’s stimulated a few waning brain cells, thanks a lot, friends!
@ Tony
Still more historical revisionism from you Tony regarding catholics and fascists
Try to remember that the Semana Santa parades in Spain are a jamboree for a minority-interest group costing several hundred thousand euros that is paid for by state funds in the middle of an age where people are losing their jobs left right and centre.
@ Tony
One person’s party/celebration can look a lot like a display of importance/authority to others. Especially when those others are having to pay towards it.
What a lot of atheists we have today! Must be English, forced into anti-catholicism by Henry 111V!!
HodgeyBoy (or Hedgey-Boyo) 80% of Spaniards are at least semi-catholic, which is reflected in the funding afforded by the State and the desperate measures being adopted by the Zapo lot to destroy this heritage.
Historical revisionism? Claptrap old boy, Historical fact.
Creep back into your rat-holes and let us live the life.
@Tony
LOL, semi-catholic? SEMI-catholic! My impression is that for catholics you’re either in or you’re out so a suggestion of 80% being ‘semi’ catholic undermines your proposition at the very least in some sense.
And as for historical fact, well if you’re willing to line up your revisions against the weight of academic published material then you seem to have a perception deeply divorced from reality but then that’s not entirely surprising given your position on this so far.
“It is true that Fascist regimes hijacked religion to further their ends, but once again opposition to this would result in ruthless extermination.” ……..and
“The Catholic Church spoke out as much as it dared for fear of intimidating this madman into even more heinous crimes”
I find those two comments simply stunning! Amazing to me, the way you explain away the level of involvement repeatedly around the world of catholic institutions with Far-Right authorities. Seems to happen just a little too frequently, wouldn’t you say? And as for it being a way of avoiding persecution – What an incredible lack of commitment to their own faith that they should in every case became the principle cheerleaders for collaboration. What a miserable and mealy-mouthed betrayal of everything we are told the church stands for, what an abdication of responsibility to the people we are told they represent.
You’ll not be surprised to learn that I think the catholic church is morally bankrupt but that doesn’t mean I want it banned or shut down. I want a secular state not an athiest one; a genuine wall between faith and government.
I think that both you and succssive Spanish governments have a fuzzy view of that wall.
Tony dear….. go to sleep honey.
From Spain with love.
Tony – why does anyone want to celebrate something which doesn’t really exist?
You can’t say “it’s not trying to convert anyone” because that is the church’s only mission. It’s the only purpose in its existence. That’s what priests are there for.
If it didn’t try to convert people, as do all other religions, what would be the point exactly?
The sad thing is that all religions are equally destructive and misguided. They all worship someone or something which never existed in the first place. Simply passing on some nonsensical belief is in itself extremely harmful.
My father-in-law once said ’Never argue or discuss religion or politics’. He would have been at a loss to advise on this situation vis- a- vis ‘Religion and atheism.’
Adrian, the original comments in Olive Press revolved around the banning of a proposed atheist march, presumably designed to confront or otherwise interfere with an ancient religious festival in Madrid. No one was going to try to convert you, they just wanted a good Spanish celebration. In fact, knowing Spanish celebrations, religion was just a good excuse. But somewhat akin to the National Front at political rallies in the UK, the atheist march required Court action to prevent clashes or any accompanied disturbance or even violence. Shame on you, my atheist friends!! Look to your zero belief, why not act accordingly! Why be bothered with us Christians? Let us live our lives as we see fit and we’ll let you live your own, as the Christians we are. I promise we won’t organise a march to confront your own. I suggest that you arrange another date where you will not be mingling with the hated religious folk. Just leave us alone.
It’s not possible to argue any cause in the pages of such a publication as this, how can anyone present a 2000 year old history which has shaped the world and the zero influence of a nothing, self-righteous fixation such as atheism?
‘From Spain’, poor old dear, did you spill your G&T when you woke up?
“…Let us live our lives as we see fit and we’ll let you live your own, as the Christians we are…”
If only christians would just keep their views to themselves and avoid interfering in the lives of others but this seems impossible for all but a few – and what makes it worse is that they do this with the help of millions of euros of state funds – which was the cause of my own initial complaint.
Although, yet again he falls back on lazy characterisations of atheists which I must challenge. Now we’ve already disagreed on whether the likes of Stalin and Hitlet were catholics at heart or not but lets allow Tony his little mis-understanding and say that these were atheists. The crucial point is that they did not carry out their atrocities because of or in the name of atheism. Now stop a moment and see if you can think of an atrocisty carried out because of or in the name of religion….. There you go; you’ve just thought of one!….. and yes, I bet there’s another, not hard is it, there’s plenty of them to choose from! So don’t let Tony fool anyone that this christianity is all meek and mild. History proves otherwise. Perhaps the reliogious can’t be trusted with this faith thing, afterall – I mean, just look at what they go and do with it!
What Tony fails to realise is that he is an athiest too; not all that different from other enlightened folk. Tony is an athiest to Thor, an athiest to Jupiter, an athiest to any earth spirit of pagean times. All these gods ruled over the lives of millions in older times and have now fallen into irrelevance and guess what happened? Nothing happened. The world kept turning.
Atheists just go one god further than the likes of Tony dare.
“Your ignorance Stuart and Guirizano is quite profound”
Why don’t you dial up Matthew 7 v 3 in your own “good” book. Some good advice (although don’t get it into your head that all advice out of that book is good…)
Anyway, I’m less interested in how fascist regimes apparently hijacked religion and more interested in why religion consorted and abetted those regimes. Like I said, the Roman Catholic Church never saw fit to excommunicate Hitler. They were quite happy to play along with Mussolini and Franco.
Next time I go out to watch that “party” of “joy” and “celebration”, I’ll think of the guys who got burnt at the stake for suggesting the earth was not at the centre of the universe, I’ll think of all those poor defenceless kids who were abused repeatedly by priests and also about the lengths their superiors when to to cover it all up. That’s what I’ll think about… Just because some myth is 2000 years old, doesn’t make it any more valid.
guirizano,
game,set and match, could’nt have put it better.
You know 99% of these fanatics are born to into homes where they are brainwashed from the moment they are born – Christians/Fascists/Marxists – the list is endless and they all have one point in common – they are all brazen cowards, petrified to accept responsibility for their own lives.
This idiot coward Tony brands us all as Atheists he does’nt ask us if we are Atheists – he just brands us automatically – would’nt he have been an excellant member of the Inquistition.
I have to admit I don’t have a Pacifist mentality I would process them all into useful material for the wellbeing of the planet.
Religion and faith is just indotrination, pure and simple. As an example, take a child from a Jewish family and give it to a Muslim family. That child would grow up to belive in the faith of Islam, without knowing any difference whatsoever.
AMEN