A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Insulting the sacred in a multicultural society: the conviction of Jussi Halla-aho under the Finnish religious insult section
Authors: Äystö Tuomas
Publisher: Routledge
Publication year: 2017
Journal: Culture and Religion
Journal name in source: Culture and Religion
Volume: 18
Issue: 3
First page : 191
Last page: 211
Number of pages: 21
ISSN: 1475-5610
eISSN: 1475-5629
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2017.1365736
This article analyses the most well-known and legally important contemporary Finnish religious insult case: the case of the politician Jussi Halla-aho. Concluded in 2012, the said legal process resulted in a conviction due to Halla-aho’s blog post about Islam and its sacred figures. Using a discursive framing, the article argues that the contemporary religious insult cases can, in fact, be political struggles involving various interests in a multicultural society. Building on broadly Durkheimian theorisation of the sacred, it also argues, that besides the Islamic objects set apart as sacred in the process, ‘secular’ ideals or values, such as the public order, tolerance, equality, and freedom of religion are also constructed as such and protected by the officials. By protecting Islam, the courts, in fact, aimed to protect a ‘secular sacred order’ against societal threats.