Austria: politician cleared over anti Muslim game

A right-wing Austrian politician has been cleared of incitement after he created an anti-Muslim computer game as part of an election campaign.

reedom Party deputy Gerhard Kurzmann used the game in his failed bid to become governor of the south-eastern province of Styria last year.

Players of "Bye-bye, Mosque" had to shoot at Muslims and mosques as they emerged from a rural scene.

The game sparked sharp criticism from other parties and religious groups.

Judicial authorities forced the Freedom Party to take down the game and Mr Kurzmann was later charged with inciting religious hatred and defaming a religion.

But on Friday a court in Graz cleared Mr Kurzmann.

"It did not reach the threshold of incitement and I would also say this was not the intention," Judge Christoph Lichtenberg said, in remarks carried by the national APA news agency.

The prosecution said it would lodge an appeal.

The Freedom Party said the ruling showed that "the question of whether mosque-building should be banned is being discussed all over Europe and that it is a completely legitimate debate", Reuters news agency reported.

Less than 2% of Styria's population is Muslim and the province has no mosques with visible minarets, APA said.

The Freedom Party is Austria's biggest opposition party. It argues for Islamic face veils and mosques with minarets to be banned.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15311541

Discuss.

Reply 1

Oral

1

Why did they have to take the game down! I want a link!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 2

CombineHarvester

16

A bit of a meh story, given that it's Austria if it this prospective politician created a game where you shoot Jews leaving a synagogue as part of his election campaign I'd imagine he'd be imprisoned.

Reply 3

tammie94

15

Original post by Oral

Why did they have to take the game down! I want a link!

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=your+a+retard+pictures&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1440&bih=765&tbm=isch&tbnid=sx5GssD3wZn1wM:&imgrefurl=http://www.nextgenupdate.com/forums/modified-patches/326841-godly-modz-not-making-anymore-patches-7.html&docid=a6uQhEbt_2RDpM&imgurl=http://newsimg.ngfiles.com/193000/193742_retard.jpg&w=380&h=302&ei=2TusTsmHMInHtAat-uT-Dw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=174&vpy=140&dur=4737&hovh=200&hovw=252&tx=209&ty=123&sig=105685305837363237607&page=1&tbnh=126&tbnw=163&start=0&ndsp=30&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

Reply 4

2ndClass

3

T-Ros evidently fapped to this monumental news.

Reply 5

tammie94

15

Original post by CombineHarvester

A bit of a meh story, given that it's Austria if it this prospective politician created a game where you shoot Jews leaving a synagogue as part of his election campaign I'd imagine he'd be imprisoned.

Imagine the controversy if he made a game where you shoot Christians leaving a church. He'd definitely be imprisoned for that. But since it's about muslims no one seems to care. :confused:

(Double standards much!)

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 6

B-Man.

13

T-ros has already pre-ordered 3 copies.

On a serious note: This is ****ing ridiculous. How does a politician like this become a member of the BIGGEST opposition party in Austria? Is it really that bad there? If this wasn't incitement to hatred, I don't know what is.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 7

cgraham15

11

complete face vails should be banned though. I don't mind the head scarfs (they look quite cool and persian :biggrin:

) but I like to see what the person looks like...

Reply 8

tammie94

15

Original post by Algorithm69

I very much doubt that.

Oh and why is that?

Reply 9

tammie94

15

Original post by Algorithm69

lol you made the initial claim. The burden of proof is on you to prove your position has any merit whatsoever. Care to provide Austrian laws or precedents that make your bold assertion have any truth to it?

Gladly. The christian population in austria is 66% so making a game like that would be like upsetting 66% of the whole country (,and it's very unlikely that no action would be taken against the creator). It's a bit unfair that just because Austria doesn't have many muslims they had the audacity to create such a game. They are still offending people with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria#Religion

Now it's your turn. Proof?

Reply 10

Snagprophet

17

Here's to a victory for the Freedom party at the next election.

Reply 11

Pax Amerifauna

8

Original post by tammie94

Gladly. The christian population in austria is 66% so making a game like that would be like upsetting 66% of the whole country (,and it's very unlikely that no action would be taken against the creator). It's a bit unfair that just because Austria doesn't have many muslims they had the audacity to create such a game. They are still offending people with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria#Religion

Now it's your turn. Proof?

Hate to butt in but that's not true. No one cares about offending white people; you can abuse white people and their culture while scrounging and breeding like rabbits on their welfare all you please it seems, but if say an Austrian yodels he will be arrested because yodeling offends Muslims:
http://www.austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2010-11-29/28753/Yodelling_offends_praying_Muslims,_say_judges

Reply 12

The_Internet

20

He may have been cleared in Austria, but I doubt he'd be cleared in an EU or international court. If he was British and tried in the UK, he'd have lost quite easily

Reply 13

PendulumBoB

13

Original post by B-Man.

T-ros has already pre-ordered 3 copies.

On a serious note: This is ****ing ridiculous. How does a politician like this become a member of the BIGGEST opposition party in Austria? Is it really that bad there? If this wasn't incitement to hatred, I don't know what is.

There does seem to be a very definite trend in Europe that as the number of Muslims in a nation increases so does this sort of politics.

Reply 14

tammie94

15

Original post by Algorithm69

Your point about Austria's religious makeup is irrelevant as Austria is a secular state and is bound to the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees freedom of religion. You seem to think that in Austria there is a tyranny of the majority, which there is not.

Now, I'm well aware that Austria has serious guilt issues about the Holocaust, and their policy towards holocaust-denial is insane (David Irving, for example), but I see no evidence whatsoever that if a game had been made depicting Christians instead of Muslims the outcome of the trial (if one had even been initiated) would have been any different.

And "Austria" didn't make the game. A resident within Austria did, exercising his right of free expression.

And boohoo, people were offended. Who cares?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02dXAkxbyQg

I don't recall stating that 'Austria made the game' and people should only be given the freedom of religion (and speech) if they respects other peoples freedom of religion (and speech). Holding double standards just shows stupidity.

'The Freedom Party is Austria's biggest opposition party. It argues for Islamic face veils and mosques with minarets to be banned.' (from the article)

Reply 15

tammie94

15

Original post by Pax Amerifauna

Hate to butt in but that's not true. No one cares about offending white people; you can abuse white people and their culture while scrounging and breeding like rabbits on their welfare all you please it seems, but if say an Austrian yodels he will be arrested because yodeling offends Muslims:
http://www.austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2010-11-29/28753/Yodelling_offends_praying_Muslims,_say_judges

Well done genius! :rolleyes:

A couple of muslims finding yodelling offensive = every muslim finding yodelling offensive. Why didn't I think of that! :tongue:

On a more serious note, when the minority are offended they may feel more threatened as they are after all the minority. The governments (in most countries) also tend to deal with issues that effect the majority more, than the issues effecting the minority.

Reply 16

B-Man.

13

Original post by PendulumBoB

There does seem to be a very definite trend in Europe that as the number of Muslims in a nation increases so does this sort of politics.

Not really; the rise in Islamophobic policies emerged in the last decade - it's more of a time frame issue. The amount of Muslims in Europe hasn't vastly increased since 2001.

Reply 17

Besakt

3

Original post by 2ndClass

T-Ros evidently fapped to this monumental news.

Reply 18

spasmodic

Absolutely disgusting and worrying. The far right seem to be on the rise in Austria and I've read that they are trying to collaborate with German far right parties. 29% of austrian vote was for the freedom party (17%) and their facist friends BZO in the last general election in 2008. A big surge since the previous election in 2006. 2011 polls show the FPO's support increasing to 29%.

I can only fear that increasing economic worries will make more people vulnerable to hate mongering. I'd like to see the bbc or someone do a documentary on this topic.