A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Insulting the sacred in a multicultural society: the conviction of Jussi Halla-aho under the Finnish religious insult section
Tekijät: Äystö Tuomas
Kustantaja: Routledge
Julkaisuvuosi: 2017
Journal: Culture and Religion
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: Culture and Religion
Vuosikerta: 18
Numero: 3
Aloitussivu: 191
Lopetussivu: 211
Sivujen määrä: 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.